Best Frienemies
by FantasticT
Summary: When Buttercup turns sixteen, she and Butch find that they might want to be more than friends...unless Princess gets in the way of their feelings!  When Buttercup loses her trust in Butch, can he win her back in time to take her to prom?  Complete.
1. Look Out World

_A/N: It's me! Fantastic T! Back yet again to entertain and satisfy. Welcome back, little nuggets! Glad you decide to read more of my stories, that always means a lot to me. :)_

_So the day after I posted my other story, I just had to write more. I love the idea of people R&R-ing, soooo I wanted to give you a little more of my work to read._

_I'm using my iPod touch to write this one, because I (unfortunately) don't have my own laptop, so I'll be updating often. All I have to do is type it, email it to myself, wait for my dad to get home with his laptop, copy and paste into Word from my email, and post….ay curumba, this is gonna be a long story._

_Enjoy, darlings!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Powerpuff Girls guys. The chance of having Cartoon Network show up at my door with the rights to the PPG is the same percent that I will marry Taylor Launter-about 1 in 500000000000000. But I can hope & dream!_

I was asleep in her room on a bright Saturday morning, covering up my face with a bright green pillow, trying to block out the bright yellow sunlight that was streaming through my window. I laid calmly on her bed, praying that this Saturday, he wouldn't-

Suddenly, with a flash of green training behind him, someone crashed through my large, oval shaped window (breaking it for the 16th time that month) and zipped around my room, knocking everything off of my desk, breaking my lamp, and ripping my OneRepublic and Paramore posters off of the wall, and finally flinging everything but me and the pillow over my head off of my bed.

"GOOD MORNING, SUNSHINE!" he yelled into my ear, whipping the pillow off of my head. He started jumping up and down on my bed like some kind of five year old.

I hissed like a vampire at the early morning light. "Butch, you just can't let me sleep in. What kind of counterpart are you? I swear to God, if you weren't my best friend-"

"You'd whoop my a.., I know!" Butch said mockingly, hitting me in the backside with a pillow. "Now get up, BC! You don't wanna miss your 16th birthday!"

I smiled. Yes, today was my sixteenth birthday, finally. I briefly reflected on all of the years passed, noticing just how much we'd all changed. Ever since crimes died down in Townsville-Mojo Jojo retired, the GangGreen Gang moved on to Citiesville, and Him disappeared-we had more time to focus on growing up, despite the rare bank robberies we were forced to deal with.

Blossom was now not only a super-genius, captain of the dance team, AND class president, but she was also turning out to be very beautiful. Her once long hair had now doubled in length, making her wavy, fire orange locks flow down all the way to her knees. She still wore signature pink clothes, but now wore her hair down with a headband instead of in her normal ponytail. Along with all that, Blossom was now dating Brick, the leader of the Rowdyruff Boys. They had just started going out a few weeks ago, and they were a nearly perfect couple.

Bubbles had changed dramatically. In addition to being Captain of the Cheerleading Squad and the most popular girl in their grade, Bubbles was no longer a crybaby, and was also drop-dead gorgeous. Her short blonde hair had grown out to her elbows, though she still wore her hair in two ponytails. She was going out with Boomer of the Rowdyruff Boys, and had been for the last two years, ever since he made it known that he was switching to the Good Side.

I, however, hadn't changed that much at all. I still wore my raven-black hair out, the only difference being that I now had swoop bangs and it had grown out to my shoulders. I still wore my green, black, and white wardrobe, and still had a "sour, grumpy, and feisty attitude with sarcasm that would never stop showing up" (according to the Professor). As usual I was the toughest out of the three of us. I played every sport known to man (and kicked butt at all of them). But other than that, Life was the same.

Other than the fact that the craziest person on the planet, Butch Jojo, somehow ended up being my best friend.

And that he was waking me up on my sixteenth birthday at...?

"IT'S FREAKIN' 12:30?" I exclaimed, looking down at the mess of pillows & blankets on the floor. I started picking them all up quickly before Butch could stop me. "Are you insane? You know, this is how I'm gonna remember this morning-me being tired and annoyed and..." I rambled on and on as I crawled back into bed, shut my eyes, and attempted to go back to sleep.

I heard Butch sigh, and then a whoosh. 'Thank God he left, I can sleep!' I thought, believing Butch had flown out of the window and left me to rest.

Until I heard screaming in my ear. "BUTTERCUP, WAKE UP! WE'RE SIXTEEN!"

_Stupid sisters._

"I'm _obviously_ not gonna get any sleep," I said, hoisting myself out of bed and practically dragging myself across the floor of my room, while Butch, Bubbles, and Blossom all cheered. I gave Butch a sarcastic glare and he just smiled a false-sweet grin at me, tossing me a Red Bull out of my mini-fridge. I caught it in my hand with ease, and walked across the green carpet into my bathroom, shutting the door behind me.

I rubbed my bright green eyes and opened them up wide, running my fingers through my short dark hair. I yawned and splashed some water on my face. Even on my birthday, I was tired and less than excited to be up so early.

'Look out, world.' I thought, sighing deeply. 'Buttercup Utonium is turning sixteen.'


	2. The Perfect Dress

_A/N: Annnnnnd we're back. __

_Disclaimer: I still don't own it._

Blossom and Bubbles began to go through every piece of clothing I owned, while I watched from my perch on my bed, eating a giant bag of potato chips. Butch had gone about an hour ago, after he realized that he'd forgotten about our gifts (five hours before the party, I should mention), so now I was bored out of my mind.

"What are we trying to accomplish again?" I wondered aloud, getting hit by concert T-shirts that Blossom had thrown over her shoulder.

"We all have to look _amazing_ tonight," Bubbles squealed with excitement. "After all, it is our sweet sixteen. Now, I'll be right back!" She spun on her heel and scurried out of the room, leaving Blossom on the floor to sort through the rest of the unorganized clothes by herself.

"Unfortunately," Blossom said, lifting a ripped up T-shirt out of a pile of dirty clothes on the ground and lifted an eyebrow at it, "there's nothing too _amazing _in here in general." She sniffed the T-shirt and pretended to gag, tossing the shirt onto the ground behind her.

Before I could protest, Bubbles stumbled back into the room carrying an enormous heap of dresses in her arms. "How about this," Bubbles suggested, placing the heap in the center of Buttercup's queen sized bed. "These are all dresses from Blossom and I's closets. Why don't you go through all of these and choose one? I bet there's something in there that you'll like…" Bubbles' voice faded off, looking at Blossom with doubt.

I stared at the mound of fabric in disgust. All I could see was blue and pink and blue and pink, one on top of each other. I shot a glare at both of my sisters, feeling annoyed and crossed my arms. "There is absolutely _nothing _in here I would _ever _wear."

Blossom looked at me with angry eyes and stood up. "You haven't even looked through the pile yet!" she yelled at me, motioning towards the dresses and frowning.

I stood up to face Blossom. "I don't care! I can just tell there's nothing there!" I said firmly.

Bubbles quickly zipped over to the bed and scooped up the dresses in her arms. She tried to coax me into trying them on. "Here, Buttercup, why don't you just look at a few?"

"No." I said, still facing off with Blossom.

"Buttercup, try on a dress." Blossom said plainly, using her "leader" voice.

Well, it was _not _going to work on me this time. "I said, _no._"

"_Buttercup."_

"_No, Blossom!"_

I guess that's where Blossom drew the line, because before I knew it, we were yelling at each other angrily. "You know what Buttercup? You think you're all tough and cool just cause you don't wear anything cute—"

"Oh, shut up, Blossom! Just cause you don't think my clothes are 'cute' or 'stylish' doesn't mean anything—"

"That's because they're _not! _Why don't you just PUT ON A DRESS!"

"NO!"

"Girls, I don't want you two to fight on our birthday…" Bubbles clutched the pile of dresses innocently in her arms while Blossom and I continued to yell.

"SHUT UP, BUBBLES!" we both screamed at the same time. Bubbles pouted and looked at us, hurt.

Blossom grabbed the dresses out of Bubbles hands and shoved them at me. "PUT ON A DRESS!"

"Cut it out, Blossom!" I said menacingly, shoving them back towards her. I could tell that Bubbles knew that we were about to explode—it was completely silent in the room, other than the sound of her whimpering. Like the quiet before a storm.

Blossom and I were almost nose to nose, both giving each other the evilest of stare we could manage.

"TRY. THEM. ON!" Blossom screamed, pushing me over and throwing the dresses on top of me. I burst out of the pile, scorching the floor and a few of the dresses I'd been buried under. I zoomed at light speed towards Blossom and crashed into her shoulder, sending her flying into the wall.

She pulled herself out of the gaping hole in the wall and grabbed some dresses off of the floor. Sparkly blue, bright pink, black and blue, pink and white, dresses of all colors flew towards me at lightning fast speeds, but I managed to avoid them all.

Well, technically, I more or less destroyed them with my eye beams.

"Is that all you got?" I challenged Blossom, daring her to throw more. She gave me another death glare before shooting off towards me and tackling me to the ground, shoving dresses into my face and screaming. Bubbles dove into the action, trying to split us apart. _(A/N: Cat fight!) _

"You guys," she squeaked, all three of us kicking and rolling across the floor. Blossom and I ignored her and continued to try and get our way.

"You guys…STOP!" Bubbles shrieked, making the room go silent again. Blossom kicked me off of her and I landed on the ground. I groaned from exhaustion and breathed in and out to catch my breath. Suddenly something caught my attention from out of the corner of my eye.

I slowly sat up, running my fingers through my hair. I pushed myself up off of the ground and slowly walked over to my mini fridge.

"_What _are you doing?" Blossom asked me, sitting up and leaning against my bed.

I fingered the black and green dress, rubbing the fabric between my fingers and smiling. The top was a green V-neck, with a black cami underneath. There was a large bow in the middle back, and the skirt was green with both small and large black polka dots on it, and reached to just above my knees.

"It's perfect."

Blossom and Bubbles came and looked over my shoulder at the dress.

"Ooh! It _is_!" Bubbles said. She and Blossom jumped up and down.

But they weren't getting me in a dress _that _easily. "But, I'll only wear it on one condition."

They looked at me with bright blue and pink eyes and stopped jumping. I smiled mischievously. "Black converse and fingerless gloves."


	3. From Up In A Tree

? POV

_YES! She found the dress! Phase Uno complete-o._

_I just hope this whole thing works…I'm putting all this effort into things and if something or someone screws it up, I swear I don't know what I'll do. But, if it does work, BC's heart will be worth all the trouble._

_Because I love the way she stood up to her sisters._

_I love the way she reacted when she saw the dress._

_And I think I just might love her._


	4. The Challenge

_A/N: I'm not gonna lie—this chapter was so hard to write! I really wanted to skip the beginning and get right to the action and fun, but __**sadly,**__ one must be patient with these things! Anyways, does everybody know how you can edit the chapters while __**on **__FanFiction? And ya know how I have to type these on my iPod (except for Chapters 2, 3, and this one)? Well, for the next chapter or so, I'm going to try a little something. I'm going to load a Word document onto FanFiction from my laptop, so that when I can't grab a hold of the laptop, I can still work on it! Genius? Absolutely!_

_**Let's get it on!**_

_Disclaimer: DO. NOT. OWN IT._

After I'd convinced my sisters in letting me wear what I wanted, they somehow forced me into the bathroom, curling and styling my hair before I could protest. They fought over what color eye shadow to force me to wear (they chose silver) and if I should wear my hair (they chose down). When we came downstairs, Professor snapped pictures of all three of us, telling us how beautiful we looked.

Blossom was standing in the center, wearing a pink strapless dress with three layers of ruffles on the skirt. She was wearing black heels with black stud earrings and a necklace, and her hair was up in a simple bun. Bubbles was to the right of Blossom, wearing a short, flowing blue halter dress with silver sparkles on the straps and her hair up in a swirling bun. Along with silver dangling earrings, and three silver bracelets on her right arm. I was wearing the dress I'd decided on earlier, with black fingerless gloves and Converse, although my sisters didn't approve. My shoulder-length hair was now curly, and I was wearing the black earrings and necklace set that my sisters gave me.

"You girls look wonderful tonight," the Professor said, smiling at us. Blossom and Bubbles both smiled while I just rolled my eyes. I hated it when he acted all fatherly like this—it was so lame.

We all strolled through our decorated house and into the backyard, where floods of people were already starting to arrive. It seemed like the entire City of Townsville was here! We waved hello to our friends and neighbors as they came into the backyard from the gate and watched as they started to mingle and dance and eat.

"Boomie!" _(A/N: Hahaha, I hate that nickname so much! But it __**is**__ very Bubbles.) _Bubbles cried as she ran towards him and embraced him in a hug.

He picked her up and spun her around. "Happy birthday, baby!"

Blossom gave Brick a quick peck on the lips and a hug while Buttercup and Butch pretended to gag behind them. They both hated annoying couples _(A/N: Almost as much as FantasticT hates the nickname "Boomie".)._

The night went on perfectly as planned, with everyone singing along to songs, dancing, and having a great time. I completely lost track of time, with all the food I'd eaten and all the dancing I'd been doing.

At one point, I found myself standing near the snack table with my sisters, Boomer, Butch, and Brick.

"This is kind of sad," Bubbles said, taking a sip of her fruit punch and looking around at the party before her. "It's been so long since we were all five and destroying the whole city with our fights, I barely remember it!"

"I definitely remember kicking all of your sorry a_," I laughed at the Ruffs.

"Language," Blossom warned.

"Whatever," I scoffed.

"No way," Butch said, raising an eyebrow. "Babying us and kissing us on the cheek doesn't even count. That's not real a_-kicking."

"Besides," Brick added. "We're immune to all that now. So how'd you beat us?"

"With brains," Blossom retorted.

"With _brawn_," I corrected her.

Bubbles and Boomer gave each other knowing looks. They could tell that a challenge was about to start.

"Please, BC, you have just about as much brawn as Mojo," Butch teased, grabbing a handful of chips and stuffing them into his mouth.

I looked at Butch and furrowed her brow. "Is that supposed to be a _challenge?"_

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't."

Blossom sighed and rolled her eyes, turning to Brick. "Here we go again." By then a crowd had gathered and was waiting to see what happened between the two green-eyed teens.

"Let's make it one then. Race me to the edge of Townsville and back, _on foot._ No flying."

"Really, Buttercup? In a _dress?" _ Blossom inquired, eyeing my outfit.

"H_ yeah, in a dress!" I bellowed at her. "Butch, are we gonna do this or what?"

"Bring it on!" Butch said, getting in my face. I stuck my tongue out at him. I _hate it _when people think that they're better than me.

"Bubbles! Come ref!" I snapped at her, slamming the gate open and walking into the front yard with Butch trailing behind me. Our siblings followed us, along with the rest of the party guests.

"You couldn't even beat me to the starting line, how do ya plan on beating me to the edge of town?" I taunted Butch, pushing his arm.

"I plan on beating you _easily,_ that's how."

Bubbles made her way through the crowd so that she could stand in front of us. "Even though, I hate it when you guys fight…" Bubbles said, putting her arms out, "On your mark…"

I looked at Butch who was already smirking.

"Get set…"

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Boomer and Butch cheering Butch on and Blossom nodding her head and rolling her eyes. I looked at the crowd around me and knew I couldn't lose for the sake of my reputation.

"GO!"

In two bursts of blinding green light Butch and I exploded into lightning fast sprints, and were already halfway across Townsville in the first five seconds. We were neck and neck, and I kept facing forwards even when Butch spoke:

"Tired yet?" he asked, continuing to look straight ahead.

'_There goes 4__th__ Avenue,'_ I thought, zooming past the street sign. I laughed at Butch. "Not even close."

We ran down the interstate, and I could see the **You Are Now Leaving the City of Townsville **sign approaching. In one sharp motion, I spun on my heel and turned around, heading for home, putting myself in the lead. Butch was right on my heels, but I was not going to let him win, best friend or not!

We whizzed past Pokey Oaks, past Townsville High, and across the sandy beaches. We raced through the park, past the statue of Mayor, past the grocery store, and around Town Hall. I could see the streets of the suburbs coming up fast, but I could feel Butch gaining on me. By the time I could see our street coming up in front of me, he was racing along right next to me. I could hear people yelling "Here

About three houses away, me in the lead by a nose, Butch stuck out his leg and tripped me, causing me to fall forward. "Hey!" I roared. But he was not getting away that easily. Just as I fell over, I grabbed onto his waist and took him down with me.

The fact that he was still running sent us both flying and rolling across the concrete, giving both of us scrapes and cuts, ripping my dress, and messing up our hair completely. We rolled down the street and landed in the grass in the front yard, him sitting on my stomach and smiling. "I win," he said simply.

I think that was the moment when something changed in me.

I hadn't heard what he'd said. I was staring into the forest green eyes above me, and the jet black hair that covered them almost completely. I was mesmerized by the familiar sly smile that he wore on his face, and the way that the sun lowering in the sky made him glow.

That was the moment when I knew I loved Butch.

After five seconds, I finally snapped back into attention and realized that I'd been staring. I looked away and could feel my cheeks burning. I was just now noticing the large group of onlookers.

I became conscious of what he'd said. "In your dreams!" I yelled quickly, pushing him off of me before anyone could notice how red my cheeks were. He flipped over and landed right next to me on the grass.

Our siblings all came and stood over us on the grass, and helped to lift both of us up. "Who do _you_ think won?" Butch asked them, running his fingers through his hair.

"Obviously Buttercup," Blossom said. "At least she was about to before you _tripped her and ruined her dress!"_ She frowned and walked off, Brick following behind her and trying to apologize for Butch's idiocy.

"I don't care, as long as I don't have to referee again," Bubbles shrugged and walked off hand and hand with Boomer.

Throngs of people started heading off back into the backyard to continue the party, leaving me and Butch in the front yard by ourselves. I prayed that he hadn't seen me blush.

"Good race, BC," he said, smiling and reaching out his hand.

"Thanks," I said quietly, reaching out to shake his hand. When our palms touched, I could feel my pale cheeks turn bright red, so I looked down trying to avoid his gaze.

Just as Butch was turning to go back to the backyard, I looked up.

And noticed the red tint to his cheeks.


	5. From Back In The Party

? POV

The dress! Ruined! Completely ripped to shreds! After one stupid race! I can't believe it! I spent _at_ _least_ two hundred, two fifty on that dress, and now it's gone!

Then again...the ripped dress and the wild hair make her look like more of a rock star than she already did. She can wear just about anything and it looks good, it seems.

Including an embarrassed blush…


	6. You Don't Think?

A/N: Th long awaited Chapter 5 is finally here! I would've uploaded it on WEDNESDAY, but it was my parents anniversary, and we went out to dinner, and then on Thursday I had a bucketload o' homework and had to get a dress for my friends bat mitzvah, etc, etc...I'm rambling again. Anyways, I've added a couple chapters to make up for it. Forgive and forget?

Let's get ready to rumblllleeee!

Disclaimer: I OWN IT! ...Psyche!

Bubbles POV

Oh, I can't believe Buttercup did that AGAIN! Every time I see her and Butch together, they're either best friends or worst enemies, always fighting or trying to beat each other like they're still five years old!

Although tonight, when Butch accidentally fell on her...

"Bubbles!"

I looked around from my spot in the middle of the dance floor to see who was calling me. I hated when I heard voices like that-it made me feel like Him had returned out of hiding.

"Bubbles! Over here!"

I turned to see Blossom motioning me towards the side of the house with a serious but excited expression on her face. I quickly excused myself from my group of friends and snuck around the corner.

"What's up, Blossom?" I asked, leaning against the side of our house.

"Well," she said, giving me a smile, "you know earlier when BC was racing Butch?"

"Yeah...?"

"Did you notice her totally blush after he accidentally fell on top of her?". Blossom squealed, fanning her face.

"Oh my God, yes! I knew I wasn't the only one who noticed!" I knew it! I knew I wasn't seeing things!

Blossom looked at me with a sly smile. "You don't think she...?"

We both gasped at the same time and started jumping up and down excitedly. "Buttercup likes Butch!" we both cried out at the same time, laughing and shrieking in happiness!

Me and Blossom were too busy screaming and freaking out to notice Brick and Boomer slip out of the party and head our way.

"Hey ladies, what are we talking about?" Brick said, slipping his arm around Blossom's waist.

"Oh, nothing," Blossom smiled at him and leaned into his shoulder, covering her goofy grin with the palm of her hand.

"Just tell him, Blossom!" I urged my sister on. "He probably noticed earlier anyways."

"What, Butch and BC's little moment back there?" Boomer chuckled. "Yeah, we definitely noticed."

"Ol' Butchie Boy turned redder than her face when she's mad." Brick said with a laugh and high-fived Boomer.

"_Anyways_," Blossom said, clearly getting annoyed with Brick's jokes being the serious person she was, "we're not sure yet, but we're almost 100% positive that she _finally_ likes him as more than a friend!"

"Or he got embarrassed that he got beaten by a girl." Boomer snickered to himself, earning a death glare from Bubbles and making him go silent again.

"I doubt he was embarrassed. Butch has never been as red as he was just then." Brick said, suddenly bringing out his serious side and showing off how much he and Blossom were alike.

"He did look pretty lovesick," Boomer shrugged.

"Well, then," Blossom declared, "let's start getting ready for a triple date-because it's not long now!"

Buttercup's POV

"Bye, thanks for coming! See you Monday!" I called after some of my friends who were getting in their cars to leave. The party had gone on strong until 12 a.m. when people started to clear out. Now only about nine or ten stragglers were left.

I rubbed my aching neck with one hand and sighed, struggling to keep my eyes open. After I'd completely embarrassed myself in front of an entire crowd of people-most of all, Butch-I had sprinted upstairs to at least change out of my clothes, when I realized that I liked the ripped dress look. I threw on some black skinny jeans under it along with a headband with a giant bow attached-perfect.

When I headed back downstairs, the party was yet again in full swing, the hired DJ playing all the popular songs and everybody dancing like there was no tomorrow. It was going to be so weird seeing the backyard completely empty again after a night like this.

"If the Moon Fell Down" by Chase Coy **(A/N: Sweetest song ever!)** was playing when he called me over.

"BC!" I looked over my shoulder at Butch, who was smiling at my from behind he screen door in our house.

I casually strolled over to the door and slid it open, feeling my skin heat up a little the closer I got. Stupid hormones.

As soon as I stepped inside, all in one swift motion, Butch slammed the door, grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside the room under our stairs.

"Um, Butch? What the _heck_ are you doing? I have to say goodbye to everyone who's leaving!" I asked, giving him a funny look. I reached for the doorknob and tried to get out-the idea of standing so close to him was making my stomach churn.

I began to open the door.

He pulled me back by the waist and slammed the door shut.


	7. Together

A/N: Thanks to all my lovely reviewers! Keep on bringing 'em in! The more you review, the faster I'll try to updaaaate! Anyways, I accidentally deleted this chapter once & had to type it again, so you better love it, or else Buttercup's gonna getcha!

Disclaimer: ...No.

"What the-!" I started, when Butch interrupted me.

"Well...uh...Buttercup...thing is..." he said uncomfortably, playing with a string on his shirt. He looked up at me and ran a hand through his unruly black hair. It was the first time he'd called me by my real name in months.

"Yeah?" We were standing so close that I was surprised that he couldn't hear or feel my heart thumping wildly in my chest. I was hating every second of this. I hated that feeling I had in my stomach, I hated that I didn't know what Butch was going to say, and I hated that he was looking at me with such intense eyes!

"Jesus, I'm awful at this kind of thing..." he chuckled, his gaze returning to the floor. I tried not to get too impatient.

"Listen, BC, these past couple months have been really great, and I've been getting this feeling, and...um...I think I might like you..." he avoided eye contact with me.

Was this really happening? I stared at him, dumbstruck. **(A/N: Or I guess in this case, Dum-B struck! Comment if you got that joke :D)**

**(A/N: Ah, heck, comment anyways.)**

"You what?"

"Like I said, I've felt like this for a while, especially earlier tonight when I tripped and fell on you tonight after the race, and that's why *I was the one who made sure you found that dress in all the others, cause I wanted you to look and feel special, and why I've been trying to flirt and be careful not to get you mad, BC, cause well..." he said sighing.

I held my breath, waiting for him to say what I wanted to hear.

"...I think I love you," he finished, looking up at me again.

I couldn't hold my excitement in any longer. I grinned wider than I ever had in my life. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him into a deep kiss on my sixteenth birthday, in a ripped green dress, in a closet under the stairs...

...And I couldn't have been happier.


	8. The Next Months

The next few months were the best of my life. Although at first it was hard to break it to the citizens of Townsville that Buttercup Utonium was dating a villain, they could all see that I was happier than I'd ever been. 

Butch and I were one of the happiest couples in the school, in fact, rivaling even Bubbles and Boomer's relationship. There were only a few differences that separated the way our siblings' relationships and ours worked.

To Bubbles and Boomer, it was all about kissing and cute gifts and passing each other notes in class.

To Blossom and Brick, it was all about spending time together, study dates, and romantic dinners.

For me and Butch, though, it wasn't just a relationship.

It was a friendship too.

When we became boyfriend and girlfriend, not much really changed between us (other than the fact that we went on dates and kissed, of course). We still hung out to play Halo and Call of Duty, still insulted each other, still got competitive around one another. Most of all, we were still best friends. Same old Butch and Buttercup, toughest teens at Townsville High and toughest couple in the entire city of Townsville.

I honestly didn't know how I got so lucky that I ended up with him. Butch was funny, good-looking, smart occasionally, good at sports, and loved music-the perfect guy. He was my perfect match in every way possible, right down to his favorite color. 

I never thought that anything could go wrong while we were together. 

How wrong I was.


	9. Betrayed

**A/N: Oh my, oh my oh my oh my. I bet you all thought that I was gonna leave you hanging for the entire weekend! I bet some of you thought that was the end!**

**To that, I say "nay"! Of course not! I promised that I would update on the weekends, didn't I? I bet some of you non-believing nuggets thought I wouldn't stay true to that promise! Plus, when I write a story, there is always a little drama guaranteed. And things are about to get very interesting!**

**But before we continue, I'd just like to put one thing out there: This story has gotten over 1000 hits, but only has 23 comments (and the 23rd was added almost a full week ago!)! So to those who make it this far in the story-is it truly that hard to press one little button and type five words: "Nice story please update soon"? I'm begging you, my little nuggets, to comment.**

**No pressure, of course :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the PPGs, the RRBs, BRB, OMG, GTG...oh, sorry. I have ADD. (Nice rhyming, FantasticT!)**

One of the best parts of going out with Butch was that I got to see my sisters again. Normally, Blossom and Bubbles were out on dates with the blue and red Rowdyruffs, and I was found alone in my room watching Fresh Prince of Bel Air reruns. And of course, when Blossom and Bubbles were at home, I had softball or soccer practice. But now that Butch and I were together, we went on triple dates with the guys and always got a chance to be around each other. I got to be with all the people I cared about almost all the time, which made me feel purely wonderful.

One night, we came striding through the front door after an amazing day at the beach with the boys. We automatically collapsed onto the couch, exhausted. Blossom and Bubbles squeezed in on one side, and I laid down on the other. We all sighed and stretched our legs.

"Best," started Blossom.

"Day," added Bubbles

"Ever," I finished, a grin spreading across my face. Blossom and Bubbles smiled back at me.

"You know, BC, I'm really glad that you're so happy." Blossom mentioned, stretching her arms.

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Well, ever since you started dating Butch, you, like, smile and laugh a lot more," she said. "It's really a nice change."

"Plus, we get along wayyyy better now!" Bubbles pointed out, sitting up in her seat and bringing her knees up to her chin.

I looked at my sisters curiously. "Really?"

"Yeah!" they agreed.

I stared at Blossom and Bubbles, thinking. I guess I _had_ been happier, better, even brighter. Being with Butch just made me that way. Everything about his personality made me feel..._good_.

"Yeah, I guess I have been feeling pretty great lately."

The room went silent for a moment. Blossom frowned. "You know, what, girls? Ever since we all started going out with the boys-"

"-we haven't spent any time together!" Bubbles finished Blossom's sentence for her.

"Yes we have," I said, getting up from the couch. "We go on triple dates with the guys all...the..." I thought about it.

"Exactly," Blossom said, brushing her hair back behind her ear.

"We see each other a lot, but we never have any girl time together," Bubbles smiled sadly.

She had a point. We really didn't have any time together with just us Powerpuffs. I had no idea how much my sisters missed me-or how much I actually missed them. "Well, maybe tomorrow we could spend some time together?"

"We could go to lunch and a movie or something," Blossom suggested.

"That sounds great, guys," I said, making my way up the stairs. I stopped at the top of the steps. "But just know that we are not getting up any earlier than one-thirty."

Blossom and Bubbles laughed. "Good night, Buttercup!" they yelled simultaneously.

I yelled good night back to them and headed to my room for a good night's sleep.

_Little did I know it would be my last for a long time._

••••••••••

The day things went wrong was the same day my sisters and I decided to spend time together.

We got up to enjoy a nice lunch at Olive Garden. The whole experience of just sitting and hanging out with them made me realize just how much I missed them. It had been months since we all got to sit down and have an actual conversation with each other without Butch getting too hungry and stealing somebody's plate, Blossom and Brick arguing over the difference between elements and compounds, Bubbles and Boomer cuddling at the table, and me sitting there with an annoyed expression on my face.

After we finished our meal, we headed off to the movies. We decided to see a horror movie (well, more I had the money and decided for us) and bought some popcorn before making our way into the movie. We shuffled passed everyone in the crowded theater and sat down in the only empty seats, right in the middle of the aisle. The previews began to play and Bubbles sighed with contentment.

"Now this has been a super day," she said. Blossom nodded in agreement and I stuffed my face with popcorn.

The opening titles began to roll.

About halfway through the movie, somebody's phone behind us rang for about four minutes before he picked it up. "Hello? Ahh, hey man!" he said, not even having the decency to whisper.

I rolled my eyes and sunk down in my seat, trying to ignore him. "Nah, I'm not doin' nothin'! What's up?" He had a Jersey accent. I hated Jersey accents.

In the movie, the main character was speaking to the ghost girl, who he was falling in love with. You could tell that he was about to say something important. For a moment, I was even distracted because **If the Moon Fell Down** was playing on the screen, and it reminded me of the night that my life got better. The moment didn't last long though, because just as the ghost on screen opened her mouth-

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Are you serious? That's cra—"

I jumped up from my chair, losing my temper. "You wanna know why they have that 'Turn off your cell phones' warning at the beginning of the movie? So that idiots like you will **SHUT THE HECK UP**! _We're trying to watch a freakin' movie here_, ya—"

I stopped yelling mid-sentence, ignoring the glares I was getting from everyone around me.

Behind the cowering man I was yelling at, behind four college kids, behind a large man stuffing his mouth with candy, sitting eight rows away, there was a couple kissing.

One of the people was Princess Morbucks. No surprise there.

The second person was a boy with long, black hair, a familiar green shirt, and unmistakable green eyes.

The second person was my life.

The second person was Butch.

_And that was the moment that my life took a turn for the worst._


	10. The Day I Fell Apart

**A/N: Told you there'd be drama. (And I told you there'd be special weekday updates!)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Powerpuff Girls. (I couldn't think of any more creative ways to say it!)**

I couldn't believe what I'd seen.

But I knew it had happened.

My anger more than doubled in the next five seconds. Everything moved in slow motion. I saw Butch and Princess, and everyone in the movie theater continued to glare at me.

I barely heard Blossom when she said, "Buttercup what are you looking at?" She noticed too and gasped, her hand moving slowly to cover her mouth.

Bubbles turned around to see, too. "Oh…BC…" she said when she saw.

I didn't know what to do. Stuff like this wasn't supposed to happen to me. I was Buttercup of the Powerpuff Girls, for crying out loud! Nobody should have been able to make me feel the way I did!

I stood there, looking like an idiot, a blank expression on my face. I gripped the back of my seat, giving Butch the hardest, meanest, fiercest glare that I could muster. The movie may have continued to play behind me, but nobody seemed to care. They all began to clear out of the theater, except for a few nosy onlookers. I watched with an evil eye as he suddenly and quickly pulled away from Princess. I knew he could feel my stare.

He looked in my direction and our eyes met. He opened his mouth to talk.

He didn't even get a chance to say anything. I screamed as loud as I could and charged at him, slamming into him and running him through the wall. We shot through layer and layer of concrete and crashed into the concession stands. Glass shot everywhere, people ran screaming—but I couldn't see or hear any of it. I was literally blind with fury.

I punched Butch in the mouth one, two, three, four times and slammed his head into the shards of glass on the ground. I wanted him to feel the same pain that I felt when I saw him with Princess. I picked him up and swung him around, flinging him through the doors and into the Arcade across the street.

I hated him, I hated him, I hated him.

"BC, wait!" I heard him yell as I zoomed towards him. But nothing could stop me now. I was wild with anger and power.

I kicked him, kicked him, kicked him, as hard as I could. "How could you do this to me?" I screeched, grabbing him by his green shirt and roundhouse kicking him so that he flew into a large PacMan game. Electric wires snapped in half all around us, sparks flying from all of them.

How _dare_ he? Make me look like a fool, cause me to feel this way, cheat on me in public-what gave him the right to do it all?

I screamed in anger, pure energy blasting from my hands in bursts of blinding electric green lights. I punched Butch in the jaw, and saw him cough up blood onto the ground.

I paused for a moment, looking first at the beaten and bruised boy in front of me and then at the puddle of red at my feet and grinned evilly. Good. He was getting what he deserved. My menacing smile quickly melted back into a grimace. I lunged forward, preparing to grab at his neck and choke him, when I felt two pairs of strong hands grab me.

"What're you doing? _Let go_!" I screamed at my sisters, who were holding my forearms firmly.

I tried to pull away and roared in anger again. I looked behind me at my sisters, and then to the cowering boy on the floor. I'd never seen Butch look so weak. I wanted him to at least get up and fight, anything but sit there staring at me.

I was in so much pain that I didn't know what to do. I had a broken heart and probably broken bones to match. The life had been sucked out of me. I did the only logical thing to do.

I took one last look at the chaotic scene around me, and shot up in the sky, heading for home.

•••••••••••••

I crashed through my bedroom window thirty seconds later, breaking it into thousands of little shards on the floor. I didn't care. I made a beeline for my desk drawer, ripped it open, and flung it onto my bed, where it snapped in half and covered my blanket with the memories of the last few months. Everything had Butch's face, name, and even scent on it.

I wanted nothing to do with any of it.

I screamed in anger, grabbing whatever I could get my hands on. I flung things across the room, into the walls, and out of the broken window. I kicked things that had spilled into a pile on the floor and sent pictures and gifts flying across the room. I sent an ear-piercing screech into the air and zapped some pictures we had taken together with my eye beams, setting them ablaze with green flames. I tore things apart, kicked them, spit on them, and yelled curses at my ceiling.

It went on like this for five minutes, until I believed that the drawer was empty. I peered inside to be sure that everything was destroyed, and saw my ripped green dress from my sixteenth birthday, folded up in a neat square, untouched in months.

The memories came flooding back, and for the first time in years, perhaps for the first time ever, I broke down completely. I fell onto my bed, wailing and crying out in sadness and frustration. That jerk. That heartless, no-good idiot! He told me he loved me! He told me he cared! **(A/N: Just shout whenever! And he'll be there!)**

**(A/N: I like how I just totally ruined the mood. But I couldn't resist!)**

He used me. He lied. He cheated. I thought we were best friends. I thought we were meant to be...

I guess I thought wrong.

**sHE beLIEveD.**

**Now you better R&R! This was my favorite chapter to write! **

**I'd really like to know on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the bestest) how you liked the fight scene description, the way I'm portraying Butch and Buttercup's characters, and how you like the story overall. Thanks everyone!**


	11. When You Mess With One Puff

**A/N: Come on, guys! Pretty pleeease review! All those hits—I'll take "good story", for Lord's sake! And for those of you who think you can't comment without an account, don't worry—you can! Sorry about being pushy, though…I'm review crazy.**

**Butch's POV  
**_What the heck just happened?  
_  
I lay on the floor of the trashed arcade, my face bruised, my skin torn, and my body beaten to a pulp. Shattered glass dug into my back, and there was blood covering my clothes-a very rare sight, because it was so difficult to make someone with Chemical X bleed. I could barely move, but slowly I brought myself into a sitting position, groaning in pain.

I could barely register what had happened in the last ten minutes. I held my head in my hands, trying to remember. Brick and Boomer had gotten up to use the bathroom...Princess had sauntered over and made a move on me before I knew it...BC was in the theater...and she must've gotten the wrong idea about what happened, because here I was, lying on the floor in agony, police tape surrounding the Arcade.

I gazed up and saw a blond-haired boy and a red-haired boy jog past the Arcade and recognized them as my brothers. "Brick! Boomer!" I moaned loudly, catching their attention. They both backtracked and peered in the dark arcade.

"Dude..."Boomer said, looking me up and down.

"Butch, what happened?" Brick demanded, an angry look materializing on his face. Since we'd decided to change to the Good Side, Brick wanted us to lay low-that meant no stealing, no destroying the city, and absolutely, positively, never ever forever amen, NO FIGHTING.

And this definitely counted as two out of those three.

"Well, remember when you guys went to the bathroom?"

"Yeah...?" Brick and Boomer said. Brick was getting antsy. Boomer just looked worried as he continued to examine my wounds.

"Well…," I said mumbled quickly, hoping that Brick didn't hear.

Of course he understood me. "She did _WHAT_ and BC saw?" I rolled my eyes and prepared for a speech. "Butch, how could you be such an idiot? You have _superhuman powers_, for God's sake! GET UP AND THROW THE GIRL ACROSS THE D… THEATER!"

Brick took one look at my sarcastic expression and slapped me across the face. "What the h-"

"Listen! You better hurry up and explain what happened to Buttercup or else I swear I'll-"

"Oh, shut up, Brick! It's not like you've never screwed up with Blossom! You can't get anything but straight A-freakin'-pluses cause of your little nerd love-"

"At least we didn't both flunk out of the third grade like you and BC probably-"

"GUYS!" Boomer interjected, startling Brick and I. He _never_ yelled at anybody, but he hated seeing us fight almost as much as Bubbles hated watching her sisters fight.

"I think the thing your forgetting is that when you mess with one Utonium..."

Boomer's face fell. Brick and I glanced at each other, looks of realization appearing on our faces.

"...you mess with them all."


	12. It's The End For All Of Us

**A/N: So, don't forget to check out the polls and the character reference pictures on my page—especially the reference pictures. It'll be fun to see what it would really look like if there was a real Buttercup beating up a real Butch-plus it's creepy how much these people actually look like them. (I bet now you're ultra tempted to go see, huh? You should be.)  
_**  
**Bubbles POV  
**Oh, no…  
I looked over at Blossom, who was soaring silently through the cloudy sky next to me, wearing a concerned look on her face. After about thirty minutes of talking to the police and promising them that we would double the work effort to pay for the damages Buttercup did, we were finally flying home to see what had become of our sister.

I had never seen Buttercup looked angrier in her life. The way she glared at Butch-it was _scary_. As if she wanted to kill him. Before me and Blossom could even do anything, he was beaten to a pulp on the ground in the arcade, and we could barely hold Buttercup back for goodness' sake.

We approached our house with caution, seeing that the window was broken and there was a box of Butch's presents lying in the grass. Blossom and I both knew from experience that it when Buttercup got mad, she was insane. Considering she'd never looked angrier before today, it made me nervous to be within 100 miles of her.

Blossom and I hovered under Buttercup's room, being careful not to land on any sharp shards of glass. We listened carefully for any sounds of screaming and crashing; we surprisingly didn't hear a thing. Blossom and I swapped a look of confusion and slowly rose up and through the window.

Inside, we found Buttercup hidden under her bed covers, shaking. I couldn't help but gasp. The last time I'd seen Buttercup cry was almost twelve years ago when I'd told her that the Professor didn't like us, and even then only one tear managed to slide down her cheek.

Blossom gave me a sharp look as Buttercup suddenly stopped crying. She sat up in her bed and ripped the covers off of herself. Her eyes were bloodshot, her cheeks were stained with tears, and there were cuts up and down her arms from the fight. She was wearing a black spaghetti strap tank top and puffy green pajama pants, and her raven black hair was in wild tangles around her head. I had never seen the poor girl look worse in her life.

Buttercup's look of sadness quickly turned into one of fury as she jumped up and screamed at us, her eyes lighting up so that even the whites were bright green. "_GET…OUT_!" She roared, throwing a large softball trophy at our heads. Blossom and I barely dodged it and darted out of her room, frightened.

We slammed the door behind us, backs against it and breathing heavily. "Have you ever seen her eyes do that before?" Blossom asked me, her eyes wide with terror.

"No," I replied, slumping down on the door. "She is really mad."

"No kidding..."Blossom said, helping me up. She paused a moment, anger coming across her face. "You know what? _Those_ _jerks_ _probably_ _knew_ _the_ _whole_ _time_!"

I was confused. "Who? What jerks?"

"_Brick and Boomer, _that's what jerks!"

I thought about it. The boys were all pretty close…and they told each other everything…plus, it probably wouldn't matter as much to them because they used to be criminals! "You're right!...How could they _do _something like that to us? They probably knew Butch was cheating on Buttercup! I bet it's been happening for months!"

Blossom and I were silent for a minute; the only sound in the house was coming from Buttercup's constant sobbing. I felt so bad for her...it made me feel sick to see her cry like that. Why would Butch even _try _cheating on BC? Didn't he know that she would find out eventually? I never thought that Butch was that kind of guy…

"Bubbles…" Blossom said quietly. "You know what we have to do, right? For Buttercup?"

"I know…"

•••••••••••

We gathered in Blossom's room, with our cell phones resting on our laps. We stared at them, dreading what we were about to do, but knowing that it was for the best. Blossom looked up at me and took a deep breath in, then out.

"Are you ready?" she asked me, picking up her phone. I nodded. "Alright. I'll go first."


	13. BreakUp With Brick

**A/N: Oh. My. Goodness. I just realized that I haven't thanked everyone who actually did review! Man, I feel awful! Thanks to everyone checking in on my story on a regular basis. Special thanks to: SPARK187, animeskullgirl16, and babydoll for being my most frequent (and most encouraging) reviewers! You guys rock my knee-high socks!**

**Disclaimer: Well, I realized that I haven't told you guys that I don't own the PPGs in like three chapters, so…I don't own the PPGs!**

**BRICKs POV**

The moon shone through my large window and the digital clock on my nightstand read 11:06PM. I sat alone in my room trying to decide what to do next. I gazed at the red paint, at the light brown bookshelves, and at my large desk as if the answer to my problems would be hidden amongst the furniture. Through the wall I could hear Butch watching an action flick in the living room and Boomer listening to some soft rock in the next room. I lay down on my back and stared at the ceiling.

_How could Butch have been so careless? _I thought to myself. _It wasn't as if Princess could hold him down. He has super strength, after all. I swear, if he was lying and he and Princess were together this whole time and he hurt BC like that, I'll—_

My thoughts were interrupted when my cell phone started buzzing on my nightstand. I looked at the Caller ID—Blossom.

"Hello?"

"Um, Brick? It's me, Blossom."

"Hey," I said awkwardly. She was silent on the other line for almost a whole minute. I cleared my throat.

"I'm just going to keep things short and sweet so that things won't be as awkward later on," she said, and I prepared for the worst. That was without a doubt her "let's get this over with" voice.

"Well, Brick, I know that you were probably aware that Butch was cheating on Buttercup this whole time, and even if you didn't I think that it would be better if we stopped seeing each other. So I'm really sorry, but it's over. I'll see you at school in the fall. Bye."

The line clicked and she was gone. Just like that. My beautiful, kind, smart Blossom broke up with me, all because of something I couldn't control? And she believed that I _knew _about it? I gripped my phone angrily causing the screen to crack as a growl escaped from my throat.

"Buuuuuuuuuuutch…!"


	14. Break Up With Boomer

**BOOMERs POV**

I placed my iPod touch on my speakers, craving music. Today was _not_ going as planned at all. I turned it on and _Wake Me Up When September Ends _began to play, automatically helping relax me.

This whole day had been…well, just one big fail. Butch screwed things up for himself and probably screwed things up for me and Brick too. Things were going to be awkward between us and the girls now. But then again, maybe BC hadn't told them yet? After all, she had rushed off as soon as she was done with Butch.

When the chorus of the song rang out, my cell phone started vibrating. I reached over and pressed talk. "Hello?"

I heard sniffing on the other line. "Boomie? It's Bubbles…" **(A/N: No matter how many times I type that nickname, I'll always hate it!)**

"Hey, Bubbles…" I said. From the tone of her voice, I could tell that she found out about what happened. I decided that if I didn't mention it, maybe she wouldn't say anything about.

She sniffed a few more times and then burst out crying. "Boomie, I know about what happened with Butch and Princess and I just don't want to be your girlfriend anymore because I know that you knew about it the whole time!"

"Bubbles, I…no!"

"Yes, you did! And I can't believe that you wouldn't stop him! You really hurt my sister, and I don't want anything to do with you! I'm so sorry, but…but…it's over…bye, Boomer…" she let out one more long wail and then hung up before I could say anything else.

I quickly picked up my phone and tried to dial her number again. "The person you are trying to reach has blocked your number from reaching them. Please hang up and try again."

"No, no, no…" I said, furiously dialing her number again.

Same message. "…has blocked your number from reaching them…"

I dialed again. "Please hang up and try again."

_Again. _"…hang up and try again."

_**Again. **_"…try again."

The dial tone began to sound over and over again. I cradled my head in my hands and breathed in and out. **(A/N: I just made a reference to the song I use next chapter, by the way.) **I grabbed my phone and threw it viciously across the room and into a blue wall, creating a large dent.

"Buuuuuuuuuutch…!"


	15. 2AM

**A/N: Don't forget to check out my page, where I have character reference pictures (It's scary how much these people look like the Powerpuffs and Rowdyruffs!)! Also, try and check out the songs that I'm using for this fanfic—**_**2am(Breathe)**_** by Anna Nalick, and **_**If The Moon Fell Down **_**by Chase Coy. Both two really great songs!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Powerpuff Girls or the song **_**2am(Breathe) **_**by Anna Nalick.**

A soft piano played on my radio. My blinds were closed and my room was dark. I was hidden under the covers, softly crying into my pillow. Around me, my room was in chaos. My spinning chair was lying on its side. My guitar was lying on the ground, one of the strings broken and beginning to curl. There were posters of my favorite bands falling off of the wall and there pictures of me and Butch ripped in half and strewn about the carpet.

_**2am and she calls me cause I'm still awake**_

_**Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?**_

_**I don't love him,**_

_**And winter just wasn't my season.**_

I let the tears continuously fall from my eyes like an endless waterfall. I felt so weak and pitiful, but I couldn't stop now. In my head, I rewrote the words of the song to say, "I still love him, but summer just wasn't my season."

_**Yeah, we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes**_

_**Like they have any right at all to criticize,**_

_**Hypocrites,**_

_**You're all here for the very same reason**_

I screamed angrily into my pillow like I had been for the past few hours.

_**Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable and**_

_**Life's like an hourglass glued to the table.**_

_**No one can find the rewind button girl,**_

_**So cradle your head in your hands,**_

_**And breathe…just breathe,**_

_**Oh breathe…just breathe.**_

I tried to do what the song said and slowly breathed in and out, but it only made my sobs come out louder and louder. I cursed into my pillow about crying like a baby. About Butch. About that whole day.

_**May he turned twenty one on the base of Fort Bliss**_

"_**Just a day," he said down to the flask in his fist,**_

"_**Ain't been sober, **_

_**since maybe October of last year."**_

_**Here in town you can tell he's been down for a while, **_

_**But, my God, it's so beautiful when the boy smiles,**_

_**Wanna hold him,**_

_**Maybe I'll just sing about it.**_

How could I have been so stupid? I should've known...

_**Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable and**_

_**Life's like an hourglass glued to the table,**_

_**No one can find the rewind button, boys.**_

_**So cradle your head in your hands**_

_**And breathe…just breathe,**_

_**Oh breathe…just breathe.**_

And…_Princess? _Of all people? I know they went out a few years ago, but I never thought he'd want her back…no surprise that they got back together as soon as I was happy. When you're Buttercup Utonium, you're not allowed to be happy. By order of the Universe.

_**There's a light at the end of this tunnel, **_

_**you shout, cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out,**_

_**and these mistake you've made, you'll just make them again,**_

_**If you only try turning around.**_

_**2am and I'm still awake, writing a song**_

_**If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer **_

_**inside of me,**_

_**Threatening the life it belongs to.**_

_**And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd,**_

_**Cause these words are my diary screaming out loud**_

_**And I know that you'll use them**_

_**However you want to…**_

I really did believe he loved me. I thought that we were always going to be good to each other…we were best friends for years before any of this happened! I never thought my best friend in the entire world would hurt me like this.

_**But you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable and**_

_**Life's like an hourglass glued to the table.**_

_**No one can find the rewind button now,**_

_**Sing it if you understand.**_

_**And breathe…just breathe.**_

_**Whoa, breathe...just breathe.**_

_**Oh breathe…just breathe.**_

I let out one last cry of sadness and a couple more sniffles, and slowly cried myself to sleep for the first time in my life.

_**Oh breathe…just breathe…**_


	16. My Downfall

**AUGUST**

I spent the rest of my summer in my room, only emerging for meals, which sometimes I even skipped.

**SEPTEMBER**

I went to school the next fall with heavy black eyeliner and completely black clothes.

**OCTOBER**

I switched out of all the classes I had with Butch, Boomer, or Brick.

**NOVEMBER**

At Thanksgiving time, I realized that I had nothing to be thankful about.

**DECEMBER**

On Christmas Day, I avoided all of my family, despite the Professor begging me to come downstairs. I did, however, let my sisters back into my life, and we drank eggnog and held a present exchange in my room.

**JANUARY**

My New Year's resolution was to try and move on, though I knew it would be impossible.

**FEBRUARY**

My birthday passed with a party and without a cake.

I cried on Valentine's Day. I remembered how last year, we'd ditched school and gone to Six Flags to celebrate.

**MARCH**

I only went to school twice a week—Thursdays and Fridays. Even then I ate lunch alone in a janitor's closet and kept my head low in class. The other days of the week, I skipped school and went to the park or the beach so that I could cry without too many people seeing me. I was ashamed of what I'd become: a crying, desperate mess. My sisters were the only two people that could keep me from completely breaking down. My life had gone from perfect into total chaos in only a few months.

**APRIL…**


	17. I Promise

**A/N: Heyyy ohhh…listen what I say, ohhh…Read & review! (That's in the song **_**Snow **_**by the Red Hot Chili Peppers!)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Powerpuff Girls. You idiots should know that by now. **_**Just kidding, you beautiful, beautiful reviewer people!**_** You're not idiots. But you **_**are **_**trying to get past this Disclaimer and on to the story…haha.**

**Awkward. **

**BLOSSOMs POV**

"Is she about to go eat in that janitor's closet _again?_" I asked Bubbles, sliding next to her with my lunch tray. Across the hall, wearing all black and green Converse, was Buttercup, sneaking off to hide from the rest of the world in her not-so-secret-spot. Ever since the beginning of the school year, she'd been dressing in darker clothes, becoming quieter, and eating lunch hidden amongst liquid cleaners and mops.

The way Buttercup was acting truly was getting concerning. We were the only people who she would talk to. Not even the Professor could get through to her, despite his efforts to be a supportive father. She barely slept anymore because of her nightmares, and almost every night I could hear her screaming through the walls. She didn't eat much anymore—she only came down out of her room for dinner about four nights a week, and had dropped almost twenty pounds. Her wardrobe had gone from a Tough Girl look to a Goth look in just a few months. Weirdest of all, she was crying pretty often—something she never, ever used to do, and in fact tried to avoid. The whole transformation was disturbing to watch, especially when it was happening to your own sister.

"Looks like it," Bubbles frowned, watching as Buttercup pushed through the double doors, people carelessly bumping into her on her way out. "People are so rude to her."

I sighed. "Doesn't it seem like yesterday she was happy and with…you-know-who?"

As if on cue, the Boys all came striding through the doors looking almost as bad as Buttercup, Butch in particular. Just like her, he was clad in all black, the exception being his green jacket and Vans. His hair was everywhere on top of his head as if he hadn't combed it in weeks, and he was walking face down, iPod filling his head with music. The usual self-centered, funny aura he had before was gone without a trace. Boomer and Brick walked with their heads up and their hair looked well taken care of, but the bags under their eyes and the way they walked told their story.

"It's weird, huh? How much things have changed?" Bubbles said, frowning and looking straight ahead as they passed our table. Butch flipped up his hood and sped by us, while Brick and Boomer awkwardly walked by. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Boomer slow down and side glance at Bubbles longingly, still hoping that she would talk to him. Not a second passed by before he remembered that he'd been trying that for the past couple of months and moved on.

"Yeah, it is weird," I agreed, my eyes glued to Brick's back as he walked away. And that was just one thing that had changed, Buttercup and the boys not sitting with us; Bubbles and I had changed as well. Bubbles lost her spot as captain on the cheerleading squad and she never put in as much time or effort to make herself look perfect each morning. Her normally bubbly personality had died off a bit, and she was no longer the cheerful teen she used to be. I was still the captain of the dance team and the President of the student council, but my grades had dropped from one hundreds in every class to low As and high Bs. I never studied anymore and I could barely sleep at night. I'd even cut off several inches of my hair one weekend because I thought it would be a nice form of closure.

Bubbles took a sip of her water and looked up. Her eyes suddenly focused on something on the wall and she gasped, causing her to spit out her water all over me and the table. Everyone's attention in the lunch room turned to us.

"Bubbles! What was that about?" I hissed, scrambling to grab napkins and wipe up the water while Bubbles hacked.

"Look—at—that sign!" Bubbles said through coughs. I followed her gaze to several bright pink posters with words in swirling purple lettering that read:

**TOWNSViLLE HiGH PROM 2O1O**

**A NiGHt tO REMEMbER!**

**APRiL 22**

**7PM—12PM TOWNSViLLE PLAZA HOtEL**

"What about it?" I asked sourly.

"What about it? _What about it?_" Bubbles began. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "The Prom was supposed to be the best night of our lives! We should've been able to pick out the perfect dresses and the perfect hairstyles and shoes to match, but now we can't even go!"

"Why can't we go again?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her rant.

"Because, Blossom," Bubbles signed, slamming her head down on the table, "We don't have dates. Everybody knows that if you even _think _about showing up dateless to Prom, it's automatic social death."

"But we have—" I started, until the memories of the last few months came shooting back at me. "Oh…right."

**BUTTERCUPs POV**

Today, instead of rushing down the hallways I strolled along casually. I decided not to eat any lunch today—I planned on ditching next period to go get some Chick-Fil-A anyways, and I was only heading to my closet to avoid having to sit in the lunch room with all of the other students.

I rounded a corner and heard someone's footsteps echoing my own. I stopped and looked behind me. No one was there. I started walking again and heard the same footsteps, only closer. I began running down the hallway then, and when the person kept coming, turned around and got ready to fight.

"What the h… do you want!" I screamed.

"Calm down, Buttercup! It's just me," Mitch Mitchellson assured, stepping closer to me. Mitch was my best friend in Elementary and Middle school, but after…_you know who_…became my best friend, we stopped talking.

"Oh…hey Mitch." It felt so weird talking to someone other than my sisters after all this time.

"Listen, Buttercup," he started, coming up to me and trying to put his arm around me. It wasn't the same as having _you know who_'s arm around me, but I let Mitch do it anyways. He started walking me down the hallway, past my closet where I should've been by then.

"I know that you and Butch broke up—"

I shuddered at the mention of his name.

"—and I know that you liked him a lot. But, let's face it. You gotta move on sooner or later. So, you know what I think?" He waited a moment. "I think that you and I should go to Prom together!"

He waited for my reaction. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Why would you wanna go to Prom with me anyways? I thought you might want to go with Mary or Julie."

"Nahh, not my type," he scoffed. I continued to look at him doubtfully, and waited for him to yell, '_Just kidding!', _but it never came. Instead, he just pulled me closer and said, "Come on, Buttercup. Go to Prom with me! I promise, I'll make it one of the best nights of your life."

I thought about it. I did have to move on sooner or later…but it just didn't feel like the right time. I hated to admit it to myself, but I still loved Butch, and I didn't know if I was ready to try a relationship with anyone else. "I don't know, Mitch…"

"Well, if you change your mind," he said, taking his arm from my shoulders and walking backwards down the hallway. "You know what number to call."

He turned and raised his hand in goodbye just as the bell rang and signaled me to check out for the day.


	18. Mime For A Change

**A/N: READ THIS! **

_**CHECK OUT THE NEW POLL ON MY PAGE! **_**The question is: Should Buttercup go to Prom with Mitch? Remember, I can't continue the story until people vote, so vote fast! I already have two lovely storylines planned out, whichever way things go. **

**By the by, Sorry it took so long for me to update, lots of things that you don't care about got in the way. **

**DISCLAIMER: Nope.**

**BRICKs POV**

By the time Boomer and I flew through the door from Townsville High, the daily routine had started already. As usual, Butch had already flown into his room, shut the door, and started to blast annoying Scream-O music as loud as he could through his speakers. And, as usual, Mojo was standing outside of Butch's locked room, banging on the door and yelling:

"_SHUT UP! This is my observatory, I pay the bills, therefore the room you are living in is none other than my room, and the speakers you are using are none other than my speakers, and because it is my room you are living in and my speakers you are using, you are required by me, Mojo Jojo, to turn down your annoying music and SHUT UP!"_

And, as usual, Butch ignored him.

Boomer and I exchanged eye rolls and plopped down on the couch to start on our homework. We spread everything out on the coffee table and got to work; I had about five hours of Algebra to get done. I stared down at the long equations in front of me and tried to concentrate on #1.

_5x__5__ (27yx + 88)—_

I closed my eyes for a moment and gripped the coffee table as I tried to hang on to the last shred of sanity I had left. The screaming lead singer in Butch's music was unbearable enough without Mojo's monkey-screeching in the background.

Boomer noticed me breathing in and out. "Brick, just try and ignore it. Don't freak out."

"Okay, okay, I'm fine," I said, loosening my grip. The song had come to a close, and Mojo had seized. I took one more look at #1.

_5x__5__ (27yx + 88)—_

Butch's song started up again, only louder this time. He obviously put his iPod on repeat, and he obviously did it to annoying Mojo. The monkey's ridiculously loud and obnoxious voice filled the observatory, and, mixed with the song, was like nails on a chalkboard to me. My grip tightened again on the table in an attempt to calm my nerves, but I ended up cracking the piece. I could feel a painful headache coming on, and even Boomer could tell that I was about to lose my temper.

"Breathe, Brick. You're bright red, dude," Boomer said putting a hand on my shoulder.

I rubbed my temples. "I swear, if Mojo says one more word, I'm gonna—"

"_I COMMAND YOU TO SHUT UP, YOU ANNOYING—"_

That sentence was the key to the car that was driving me crazy. I leaped up out of my seat on the couch, pushed past Mojo, and burst into Butch's room. Things were getting out of control and plain dumb. Every day, Butch acted more and more annoying and stupid. And every day, I was getting more and more aggravated with him. That one moment, though, was the moment I drew the line. He needed to either move on or do something about his problems before I lost my sanity.

Butch snapped his head up from his guitar when I ripped the door off its hinges. "Dude! What're you doing?"

"Get the h… outside!"

"Dude!" Butch said, throwing his guitar next to his bed.

"I said," I snarled, storming over to his bed and yanking him up forcefully by the collar. "Get the h… outside!"

I dragged Butch out of his room, past a stunned Mojo, past a concerned Boomer, and out onto the ledge of the observatory, where I slammed him down onto the ground. "Listen, Butch! You're getting absolutely ridiculous! You need to make a choice about what you want to do about your stupid problem before I go insane!"

"You're already insane!" Butch snapped back. "And what are you talking about, make a choice? A choice about what?"

"Whether or not you're gonna get over what happened with BC and move on, or if you're gonna try and fix it!"

He was silent for a moment and took a step back. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked out over Townsville. "I can't fix it. It's too late to fix anything," he nearly whispered.

I stared at my brother in amazement. "Are you serious? You're just gonna give up?"

He just continued to stare off into the distance and ignore me. Butch should've known, though, that after sixteen years of being his brother, I would know how to deal with him. All it took was a bit of reverse psychology and teasing to get his mind on the right track.

"You know, for a second there, I though you actually loved BC," I began.

"I do," he told me.

Hook, line, and sinker. "Then why don't you wanna try and win her back?" I asked, getting ready to really lay it on him.

"Cause it's been almost a year already, Brick."

"Well, you obviously don't care enough about her to try and tell her what _actually_ happened with Princess and win her back."

"Yeah, I do!" Butch said, clearly getting annoyed.

"Then why did you say that you were gonna give up?"

"I dunno!"

"Were you scared?"

"H… no!"

"Then why don't you get up and do something about it?"

"I am gonna do something about it!"

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yup!"

"_Oh, yeah?"_

"_YUP!"_

"Well, good. That's what I thought you should do," I smiled, crossing my arms in amusement.

Butch looked proud for a moment, and then gave me a confused look as he tried to process the last two or so minutes. "Wait. What just happened?"

"Whatever you think just happened, Butchie Boy," I reassured him, leading him inside with a sense of relief spreading throughout my body. If it meant that I didn't have to come home to annoying monkey-screams and ear-splitting music every day, I was more than willing to help Butch with his little girl trouble.

Boomer was waiting by the door when we came inside. "You really shouldn't take advantage of him like that," he warned me as Butch went to go and sit on the couch.

"I'm not taking advantage of him. I'm doing this for his own good," I told Boomer, trying to sound innocent. He gave me a sarcastic look. "And because my mental well-being depended on it."

Boomer and I joined Butch on the couch as Mojo watching in disbelief. "Why is it that he listens to you, his brother, and not me, his own father? I swear, you boys can be so absurd with your childish mood swings. One of these days, I'll—ugh." The green and black monkey disappeared into his lab, muttering about why he ever decided to create us in the first place.

"So," Butch said, ignoring Mojo's pshycotic rant. "What do you want me to do to 'fix things' or whatever?"

"Well, some people were handing out these in the hallways," Boomer said, pulling out a small poster from his pant's back pocket. He unfolded it and spread it out on the coffee table over our unfinished homework. It was a Prom poster with purple lettering and a lot of promise.

"Prom! That's perfect!" I declared, pushing the paper across the table towards Butch. He quickly pushed it back to me.

"Dude, there is no _way_ that I'm showing my face at Prom. All it is is a lame fairytale on steroids."

"Come one, man," Boomer urged. "Girls love the Prom, they think about it from the second they're born. It's the perfect chance to make things up to BC."

"Fine," Butch grumbled, "but I'm not wearing a tux. Period."

"That's alright, I guess, but since it's strictly a black tie event, you'll need to sneak in the back," I reminded him. "But considering you're you…"

"It won't be a problem," Butch finished, smiling devilishly for the first time in months.

"Now all we have to figure out is what you're gonna do to make things right."

We all sat for a moment, thinking. What do girls love? Flowers and chocolate? Too cliché. Romantic dinner? Not BC's thing. What would the girl like? It needed to be something that would uncover the truth about Princess, something that would apologize, and something that would release her rarely seen "soft side" all at the same time…

Suddenly, and at the same time, Boomer and I shouted, "Singing!"

"Singing?" Butch repeated sourly. "Like serenading her? Guys. I don't dance. I don't act. What makes you think that I'm gonna sing? Or that I even _can _sing?"

Boomer rolled his eyes and gave a small chuckle. "Please, man, me and Brick hear you singing in the shower every morning."

"Yeah, what was that one thing he sang that one time? Remember a few weeks ago, Boomer?" I hinted with a sly grin.

"Oh, I remember," Boomer said. We both simultaneously jumped up from our seats and onto the couch. Boomer grabbed the side table lamp, and we started to dance around like mad men, singing:

"I'm too sexy for my shirt,

Too sexy for my shirt,

So sexy it hurts!"

Butch turned bright red in embarrassment, and Boomer and I both fell on the ground laughing, tears forming in our eyes and clutching our stomachs in pain. We only laughed harder when Boomer tried to get up and accidentally hit his head on the coffee table.

Ha, ha, very funny," Butch mocked us while we continued to roll across the ground, trying to control our screams of laughter.

"Okay, okay," I choked out, lifting myself and Boomer off the carpet. I wiped the tears from my eyes. "He—whoo, back to business," I cleared my throat.

"Anyways," I continued, "If you really want to impress Buttercup, you should risk everything—including embarrassing yourself in front of everyone at Townsville High. Plus, you know she can't resist music."

"He has a point," Boomer nodded.

"Well…I guess so. Why not?" Butch shrugged, throwing his hands up in the air. He covered his eyes with his hands and sighed. "Dang, I must really love this chick," he mumbled to himself.

"And I already have the fool-proof plan to go with this little project." I explained my careful plans to my brothers, each phase described in careful detail. They listened, their interest growing more and more with each portion.

At the end of my explanation, they were both silent. Boomer widened his eyes at the very idea. "Are you serious? _That's _what you call _fool-proof?_"

"It's gonna take a bit of extra effort on our parts, but in the end, it'll be a win-win situation for all of us!"

"I guess if you think it'll work…" Boomer started, scratching the top of his head nervously.

"All that's left, then, is for Butch to find the perfect song to sing," I concluded.

"Don't even worry about it," Butch said. "I already have the perfect song in mind."

"Alrighty then," I said, clapping my hands together and rising up from my seat. "Meeting adjourned. Let's do this."


	19. Brick & Blossom

**A/N: Hurry and vote! I can't continue the story until you do! Well, after these next two chapters I can't. So, you readers & reviewers, vote, vote, vote, unless you don't wanna find out what happens to Butch and Buttercup! And while I'm still on the authors note, I apologize for my lack of ballet knowledge in advance. So if there are any dancers reading, sorry I don't know how to use dance terms correctly.**

**On with the show!**

**Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever**_**, **_**own the Powerpuff Girls. (Unfortunately, that is.)**

**BRICKs POV**

I entered the Townsville Dance Studio quietly, not wanting anyone to see me. I floated silently past the receptionist's desk, into the cold, dark locker rooms, and down a long hallway. I pushed open a large wooden door at the end of the hall just a crack, and peered into the main studio.

Inside, the dancers were just finishing up. The end of the song was slowly approaching, and they were leaping about the studio on point beautifully—none looking as perfect as Blossom. As the song began to wind down, all of the other dancers spun around her in a half circle as she pirouetted one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight times in a row, and finished with a grand leap into the air, landing gracefully on the dance studio floor with a flourish.

"Good work, girls!" Blossom shouted to the rest of her class. I should've known that she was the leader of the group. "You did great today! Go ahead to the locker rooms and shower up."

Everybody clapped and cheered, and I floated up to the ceiling to hide just as they all crowded in. I waited a few minutes, my back pressed against the paneling, until I was sure that all of the other dancers were changing in the locker room. When I heard the last talkative girl shut the door behind her, I slowly came down and peeked through the door once more. Blossom was sitting in front of the far-wall mirror, stretching her legs, eyes closed. I took a deep breath and pushed through the doors.

I was halfway across the studio floors when I realized that I had no plan. I didn't think about what I was going to say in advance, and I knew that someone like Blossom wouldn't accept a simple "I'm sorry". I tried to think of a couple of different points to make about why she should take me back or why I was sorry for what happened, but my mind blanked from my being so nervous. I proceeded to turn around and come back when I was more prepared…but I knew that I had to do this right now, before I chickened out. I reminded myself that after this, Butch would keep his annoying music down to a reasonable level, Blossom and I would be back together, and my sanity would be safe.

As I advanced towards Blossom slowly, I could tell her super-hearing had kicked in and she had detected me approaching. Her eyes snapped open and she gasped in surprise, quickly standing up and giving me and sharp glare. She may have looked angry about me being there, but I could tell that she was just as nervous as I was.

"_What_ are you doing here?" she inquired, giving me a look that told me to keep my distance.

I put my hands up in defense and took a step back. "I just came because we need to talk, Blossom."

She cringed when I said her name. "Talk about what? There's nothing to talk about, Brick."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "There is _plenty _to talk about, and you know it." Her eyes darted around the room, looking for an escape. I watched and knew she was debating crashing out of the glass ceiling but that she wouldn't because she hated damaging public property when she had a choice. Finally, she gave up with a sigh and crossed her arms, impatiently waiting to hear what I had to say.

I walked towards her cautiously. "Listen, Blossom, I know that things have really…_changed…_over the past few months—"

"It's been almost a year, Brick."

"Okay, over the past year," I inwardly sighed. She was making it very difficult for me to apologize to her. "And I know you think that you know exactly why things have changed so much."

"I do know!" She screamed at me, coming up to me and giving me a slight push. "You kept a huge secret from me and my sisters, and you don't even care about how it affected us! Buttercup's in a deep depression and Bubbles isn't herself anymore…and I was really disappointed that you wouldn't tell me something like that! Or that you would even let it happen! I'm surprised that you even came to try and talk to me—_not to mention, 8 months later—_after what you and your senseless brothers did!"

I resisted the urge to yell back at her. I forgot how much Blossom and I always debated. I took a deep breath in and came closer to her. "I promise Blossom. You don't know. Look, I know things seemed bad at the time, but you've gotta believe me when I tell you that what you saw isn't what really happened. See, we started the day when we went to the movies, we figured since you guys were spending some girl time together, we'd go to the movies—well we got there, and Princess was there too. Like you know, she and Butch used to go out, but Butch never liked her much—too controlling. Unfortunately, Princess was still in love with Butch, and though coming onto him like that would be the best way to win him back. So when Boomer and I got up to get popcorn and use the bathroom, Princess came and kissed Butch, and…"

"…the story unfolded," Blossom finished my sentence. She slowly moved to sit on the floor, back up against the mirror walls and knees folded up to her chest. "All these months, we avoided you and ignored you and threatened you every time you even came near us…and it was all a big misunderstanding…"

She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. "And I hope you're not lying to my Brick. You've already lost my trust in you once…"

"I would never, _never _lie to you Blossom. I swear." I felt that it was safe to come and sit next to her now. I could tell that my part of the job was done, and that I was forgiven. I held out my arms to her for a hug, and she automatically fell into place, burying her face in my chest. I smiled and held her tightly to me, never planning to let her go again.


	20. Bookstore Breakdown

A/N: Okay, I'm so sorry for keeping you waiting! I know I hate it when other people do that in stories I'm subscribed to, but I've had a lot going on with my music and school lately! I swore I would get a chapter in though, so here we go [[and by the way, I decided that I wasn't going to do a whole Bubbles-Boomer moment quite yet, and that I might come back and add it as a "bonus scene" later. That's because I typed it out and then it didn't save, and it was a hair-tearing-out experience the first time since I'm awful at mushy Bubbles and Boomer scenes, so for now, I'm very, very, very sorry if all you Blue fans are disappointed. I'll give you what you want later though!]]

DISCLAIMER: I don't, I never have, I never will own Powerpuff Girls OR the song Coffee & Cigarettes, which is sung by NeverShoutNever and owned by Loveway Records.

BOOMERs POV

The sun was just setting on the city as Bubbles and I strolled down the sidewalk at the Townsville Shopping Center, arms linked and smiles plastered across our faces. We were on our way to meet Blossom, Brick, and Butch in the nearby bookstore's cafe so that we could decide on the plans for Butch and Buttercup's reunion. Butch was reluctant to come out of the house, especially to the bookstore, but Brick and I assured him that it would be worth it when he and Buttercup were playing video games and making fun of citizens together again.

Getting Bubbles to forgive me was like, if not ten times easier than, taking candy from a baby-a task that wasn't at all difficult for me, given my criminal past. After showing up at the end of her cheerleading practice (unannounced, of course) with a big bouquet of her favorite flowers, a teddy bear and a poem explaining exactly what had happened and causing her whole team to burst out in a chorus of "Awwww"s, Bubbles had flown from the top of the pyramid the squad was forming and right into my arms. Despite almost being strangled by the strength of the embrace, I was glad to have her back in my arms again. I quickly explained what had happened and the plan for getting Butch and Buttercup back together and she began to tell me how sweet that was, at which point I'd gotten the call from Brick to meet him, Blossom, and Butch at the bookstore.

Luckily for me, Bubbles was sweet enough to accept me with the little gifts I'd presented. I had to admit, Blossom was like a sister to me, but she was too serious. I imagined the lengths of explaining Brick must've had to go to to convince Blossom that he was telling the truth about Butch. I would've most likely stumbled on my words or said something that came out sounding suspicious or dumb, which would've caused her to dub me 'GUILTY' for sure. It was times like this when I realized that I was made for Bubbles because we were the kinder, made-fun of siblings, Brick was made for Blossom because they were the more serious leaders, and that Butch was made for Buttercup because, frankly, they were both crazy, violent idiots.

Bubbles and I strolled past the windows of the large bookstore spotting the her sister and my brothers inside sitting in the café almost immediately. Brick and Blossom were hunched over a book with a pile of books next to them while Butch had his feet kicked up on the top of the table, keeping himself entertained by shooting the nerdy cashier at the counter with laser eye beams when he wasn't paying attention. Typical.

We turned into the store and took an immediate right, pulling up two chairs and joining them at their table with a brief hello. Butch removed his feet from the table to make some room for us.

"Looks like everything went as planned for you two," he said, leaning his chair back and crossing his arms, earning him a stern glare from the cashier which he ignored.

"Of course," I confirmed, nonchalantly putting my arm around Bubbles' shoulder.

"Let's get right down to business then," Brick declared, shutting the book that he and Blossom were examining. "We need to come up with a way to get BC to go to Prom, come up with a way to work together without her figuring anything out, figure out how to sneak Butch in so that he isn't forced to wear a tux,"-Brick paused to roll his eyes-"how to come up with a grand entrance for Butch, and how to do it all in only a couple of days."

We all stared at each other for a moment in silence until we all collapsed. Butch slammed his head on the table, Bubbles and Blossom let out long sighs, and Brick ran his fingers through his long orange hair.

Brick rose up from the table. "We're gonna need more coffee."

BUTTERCUPs POV

_Friday nights are always the same in this town; I'm looking up, but I'm feeling kinda down..._

Coffee & Cigarettes [NeverShoutNever] played loudly from my iPod as I strummed along on my six-string an agreed. Friday nights were really always the same in Townsville-my sisters were going out with friends, the Professor had headed out to a Science Advancements Convention, and I was stuck at home, feeling miserable and listening to music. As usual.

I plucked a couple strings on my guitar and frowned. I was never even in the mood to play this d... thing anyways, but tonight I felt like trying for some reason. Maybe it was because I had a moderately interesting day the day before, what with Mitch asking me to the Prom. The day had been...pleasant even. Mitch had been the first person other than my sisters and the Professor that had actually tried speaking to me in the last few months. I always felt bad when I remembered how me and Mitch had always been such great friends. Through all of Elementary School, we had been best friends, skating together, pulling pranks, the works. And although I never told anyone about it, Mitch had even been my first kiss...

It didn't matter anyways though. In the sixth grade, Butch and his brothers moved back to Townsville, and me and Mitch's friendship had been downhill from there. After we started talking and hanging out instead of constantly blasting each other into nearby buildings, we started doing more things together. Mitch got jealous, we got into a ridiculously loud screaming fight that ended with Butch and I in detention for punching him so hard he broke five ribs, and that was that. Friendship over.

Speak of the devil, I thought as my phone began to ring. I picked it up and noticed the Called ID. Mitch. I was surprised that he even kept my number after all we'd been through. I debated on just ignoring his call for a moment, but decided against it and picked up.

"Hello?" I answered cautiously, bringing the phone to my ear.

"Hey, Buttercup," he said cheerily.

"Hey, Mitch.". I almost cracked a smile at his excited tone. He always did love to talk to me.

"Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to, like, grab a coffee or something? I mean, we don't have to grab a coffee if you don't want we could go to..."

I tuned out his voice for a moment to assess the situation. Was Mitch Mitchelson asking me out on a date when (a) we hadn't talked in years, not counting yesterday and (b) when he probably knew that I hated going anywhere? For a second I wondered if it was a dare, or some kind of dumb-a... joke, a prank maybe. But I highly doubted it, at the same time, knowing that it took a lot of guts to ask me out and knowing that nobody would dare play a prank on Buttercup Utonium, the toughest, don't-take-crap-from-no-one sister of the Powerpuff Girls for fear of getting their butt whooped. In fact, maybe he really did want to go out with me...and I kind of wanted to go out with him too. And why shouldn't I? After being locked up in this room for God knows how many Saturdays, why shouldn't I go out and enjoy myself, even if only for a little while?

"...or if you wanted we could go to the Arcade or the Mall, but I don't think you'd really want to go there. Or we could maybe go to the skate park if that's what you wanted to do instead. I mean, whatever works with you is fine with me," Mitch finished. Luckily he didn't ask me to repeat my top five choices, or else I would've been screwed.

"Erm, a coffee is fine, Mitch," I told him rising up off of my bed and going to my closet to dig out my flip flops.

"Oh, cool. I guess I'll be over to get you in a few minutes?" he asked me.

I looked into my mirror and practiced my smile, which I hadn't used in months.

"Sounds great. I'll see you then."

BUTCHs POV

"Alright, is that everything on the checklist?" Brick asked, glancing up at Boomer for an answer.

Boomer nodded. "Yup. That's everything! All we have to do now is grab dresses for the girls and tuxes for all three of us-thank you Butch for finally agreeing to one-and we'll be all set."

"Freakin' finally!" I yelled, throwing his hands up in the air. Apparently I disturbed the peace, because everyone around me gave me a hard glare and let out a simultaneous "Shhhh!"

Screw them. They made about ten times more noise than me.

"Great," Bubbles said, smiling widely. "Now, let's go see if they have any books on how to pick out the perfect dress. I'm so excited!"

Brick and Boomer agreed to go with Blossom and Bubbles, while let out an annoyed groan and reluctantly followed along behind them. Boring, boring, boring.

...

We were just finishing up looking up the dumb dresses when I heard a familiar laugh, a sound I recognized but hadn't heard in months. I rounded a corner of bookshelves and looked towards the café, immediately realizing where the sound came from. I saw Buttercup sitting down at the same table where I had been sitting with her sisters only twenty minutes ago. My vision focused on the cause of his laughter, sitting across from her at the table...what the h...? Mitch Mitchelson? I grimaced and continued to watch their little meeting in anger. What did he think he was doing, going out with her? Flirting with her? Making her laugh like that? Couldn't Buttercup feel me looking right at her?

I felt a hand land on my shoulder, shaking me out of my trance. Behind me, my brothers and the girls had gathered, also spying on Buttercup's date with Mitch. "Try and stay calm, man," Boomer warned, noticing the strained expression on my face.

"I am, idiot," I mumbled, never taking my eyes off of that idiot with my girl.

Suddenly, Mitch's expression grew serious. Slowly, he lowered himself to the floor. He took Buttercup's hand in his and started to say a few words to her, never loosening his grip.

"He isn't about to..." Blossom asked behind me.

"He wouldn't..." Brick whispered just as quietly.

My super hearing tuned in just in time to hear Mitch say, "Buttercup Utonium...

"Will you go to Prom with me?"

And I guess didn't tune out of their conversation quickly enough to see Buttercup nod and say, "Yes."

BRICKs POV

I knew that as soon as Butch heard Buttercup even begin to say the word "Yes" that he would spring into action and proceed to beat Mitch to a pulp. As soon as Mitch began to make the Prom proposal, I signaled Boomer and the girls to get ready to hold him back. When the confirmation was made that Buttercup would go to Prom with Mitch, all four of us grabbed Butch by the arms and pulled him back, quickly knocking him over and pinning him to the ground-and even with four other super-powered teens on top of him, we could barely control Butch's rage.

"Get the...h_...offa me!" Butch roared, twisting and turning to try and squirm his way out of our grasp. I could see that his eyes had changed color so that they were completely glowing green, something that happened only when he reached his most dangerous state of anger. He couldn't feel any other sense than anger, couldn't hear anything, and couldn't even think straight. The only time he had gotten like this was when he and Buttercup had an awful fight in the eighth grade and Boomer and I had told him that he was a worthless idiot for making her so angry and that they would probably never speak to each other again. That had resulted in Boomer and I having two or three broken bones each-and considering we were both super-powered, it was an attack that would've instantly killed any normal human.

""He's gonna break out any second now!" Bubbles warned as she started to lose her grip on Butch's arms.

"Come on, leader boy, people are starting to stare!" Boomer snapped at me, sitting on his legs, which were flailing around wildly. "Knock him out or something!"

I began to try to think of a plan to calm Butch down when I felt a hard pinch on my arm. I kneed him in the side before reaching up and grabbing the heaviest book I could find off of the shelf as he continued to try and rip the flesh off of my arm.

"D... it, Butch!" I growled, quickly swinging downwards and hitting Butch as hard as I could over the head, knocking him out for the night. His body went limp and we all breathed a sigh of relief as our struggle to keep him down was ended.

"Alrighty, guys," Boomer said, clapping his hands together. We all stood up, looking down on Butch's body and poking it with our toes to make sure all his lights were out before we picked up his body.

I noticed a salesperson passing our aisle just as I lifted my passed out brother onto my shoulder, giving us a surprised look. "Is he okay?"

"Yes, he's just...um..." Blossom stammered as she tried to think of a good excuse.

"Taking a nap," I filled in calmly, flashing a charming smile at her. She smiled sweetly back at me, flirting with her eyes and earning herself an angry glare from Blossom that sent her quickly walking away.

Blossom turned to give me the same look while Bubbles and Boomer smiled with amusement. "I can't help it if I'm good looking, dear," I told Blossom, causing her to roll her eyes.

"Now," I continued, adjusting Butch on my shoulder and turning towards the Blossom and the pair of blue teens. "Let's get this idiot out of here before Buttercup sees. Things are not gonna be easy when we get home."


	21. Princess Suspicions

**A/N: SORRY.**

**SORRY SORRY SORRY THAT I HAVEN'T UPDATED. I've just been at a kind of Writer's Block point in the story [it happens to the best of us] so I haven't been writing, but the only way to cure Writer's Block is to show it who's boss and write some more!**

**By the way, I meant to apologize to the people who voted on my poll and said that Mitch shouldn't go with Buttercup, but I changed my mind on how I wanted the story to go so I can make it a lil' more interesante [that's Spanish for interesting] for you.**

**Ladies & gentlemen, prepare for some twists and turns. :)**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own them. I swear.**

**BUTCHs POV**

When I woke up from the nap I'd taken in the middle of the bookstore, I couldn't help but smile. In my dream, I'd been playing Black Ops with someone sitting next to me. I'd just finished the game and was bragging when I heard someone next to me yell, "Whatever. I finished it three hours ago!" and start to laugh. I'd turned to the side to see Buttercup holding two ice cream cones in her hands, one outstretched to me. I reached out to take in when she shoved it in my face, laughing and causing me to chase after her.

From there, though, it got a little weird. Something about E.T., Buttercup, and I riding over the river and through Neverland on some sort of anteater-shaped pickles...

Wait. Buttercup...laughing...

Pickles?

No! It was all flooding back to me now. Mitch had asked Buttercup to Prom when my brothers, Blossom and Bubbles were in the bookstore! He'd gotten down on one knee and acted like it was a proposal, the nerve of that piece of-

Hold on, I thought, taking a deep breath in so that I wouldn't go on a rampage like I probably had in the bookstore and wondering how much damage I caused. Before I go nuts again, let me figure out where I am now.

I slowly opened my eyes and came to my senses. Underneath me, I felt a cool tile floor, all white with specks of gray covering the perimeter of the room. The space was dimly lit so that I could barely see, and there were small speakers in every corner of the room. A few yards away from me, looking at me through a glass window that made up an entire wall, were my brothers watching me like I was an animal in a zoo.

The training room.

"What the h... are we doing in here?" I yelled to them, earning myself confused looks from both of them. Brick held up a finger and then pressed a small button on the switchboard that sat in front of them.

"Can you repeat that, Butch?" I heard his voice boom over the small intercom on the ceiling.

"I said, what are we doing in here?" I repeated, standing up slowly.

"We needed somewhere to keep you until you were stable. We had to be sure you wouldn't be a furious lunatic before we let you walk amongst regular people again," he told me, putting his chin in his hands and leaning his elbows on the switchboard. "And with the way you look right now, I'd say we need to keep you in there for at least a couple more hours. You were lashing around everywhere in your sleep."

"Yeah," Boomer piped in, "Take a look for yourself."

In front of the window a long mirror slid down, covering my brothers and giving me a good look of the mess I was. I started at the bottom, looking myself up and down. No shoes, jeans ripped up with little scratches on my legs where somebody had probably had to hold me down and could barely do it. My dark green shirt had been torn into shreds across the bottom, and I had a large purple bruise on my cheek that stood out against my pale skin. And, just as an ultra-fun bonus, I had a ridiculously bad headache. Woot.

"Well what do you expect me to do in here for the next three hours?" I growled, my eyes grazing the walls for some kind of other hidden exit and knowing there wouldn't be one.

"Take a nap. Or maybe color," Brick responded smugly, an expressionless look spreading across his face. "It doesn't really matter to me. Whatever you do, it won't affect where me and Boomer are going."

"Well-wait where do you think you're going? You're not leaving me in here all day!" There was no way in Heaven or H... that I was getting left at home while they went somewhere without me, especially since I was locked in the dumb training room.

"To the mall with the girls to pick up tuxes for Prom. Don't think that this little incident was going to affect the plan," Brick answered, rising up from his chair to leave, Boomer not far behind him. I glared at them through the glass while they waved goodbye to me.

"Wait!" I called after them, thinking of an excuse to get me out of the training room a split second before they left. "Aren't you gonna need my measurements for the tux, idiots?"

"Nope," Boomer nodded his head, looking a Brick for further explanation.

"We measured you while you were asleep since we knew you would say something like that. Adios, Butchie Boy," Brick said, flipping off the lights in the control room and leaving me in complete darkness with my thoughts and a coloring book in the corner.

**BRICKs POV**

Boomer, the girls and I all piled into my Boomer and I in the front and Blossom and Bubbles. On any other day, Blossom and I would've shared driver's seat and shotgun and our blue-eyed siblings would've taken the backseat, but today, because we were going Prom shopping, the girls had insisted they sit in the back together. The backseat of my car was overflowing with magazine articles written on what type of dress for what body shape, how to choose between a strapless dress and a spaghetti strap dress, and other stories of the kind. They were flipping through the catalogues the stores had sent to their house, constantly commenting on which dress would look good on who and which were uglier than Him without his makeup on. And as much as I...loved...listening to them talk about the 127 different shades of pink and blue they could choose from, my driving was starting to get a little shaky.

We were off to get ourselves tuxedos and the girls their dresses, while Butch had stayed at home locked in the Training Room. After he had, ahem, "passed out", we'd quickly dragged him back to the children's section ("Oh, my friend? No, he's fine, we just read him a story and he fell asleep. You know how kids are.") where we had hidden him until we knew that Mitch and Buttercup had left the bookstore. After that, the girls had helped us to carry him home and into the training room, where he had stayed asleep for the past day. Buttercup, on the other hand, was enjoying a day in her room, talking to her new best friend, Mitch, on the phone. She had given Bubbles and Blossom permission to pick out her dress, as long as there were no frills, lace, poofy skirts, ruffles, bows, sparkles, stripes, animal prints, flowers, fur, ribbons, feathers, or buttons. Nor could the dress be red, orange, yellow, blue, purple, pink, white, or any of the various shades of magenta.

Boomer noticed that I was getting aggravated with the overwhelming smell of Prom in the air and let out a small laugh. "Welcome to Prom Season, buddy," he chuckled, crossing his arms and leaning back in the seat.

"I'm gonna have to say, I think my favorite part of Prom season is probably the end," I mumbled, making a right turn into the Townsville Mall parking lot.

"Me too," Bubbles smiled. We all turned to her with confused looks. "I mean, I love Prom, but at least after this Buttercup and Butch will be happy."

The car got suddenly quiet as I brought the car to a halt and although none of us wanted to admit it, we all knew what was on everybody else's mind. What if this plan didn't work? We all knew Buttercup was great at holding grudges, and now that Mitch was in the picture, anything could happen.

I broke the silence, clicking my car door open. "Well, let's get a move on I guess. Times a-wastin'."

**BLOSSOMs POV**

Bubbles and I waltzed out of Macy's as the proud owners of two new dresses. We were off to meet the boys in the Food Court after two and a half hours of blissful dress modeling. I had forgotten how fun it was to just be with Bubbles and hang out.

We were nearing the elevator when the doors slid open and a certain curly brown-haired heiress stepped out, dressed from head to toe in designer clothes. Not feeling like dealing with her of all people, I quickly grabbed onto Bubbles shoulder, turning her around and walking her the other way.

But Princess would come looking for trouble. "You Powderpuff Girls are so funny, trying to avoid me."

I rolled my eyes before turning around to face Princess, putting on a smile. "Why would you ever think we were trying to avoid you Princess?"

"Cute. Keep it up, girls, and maybe you'll get on my good side," she smiled mischievously, twirling her hair between her fingers.

"Do you even have a good side, Princess? I haven't seen it yet," I replied, crossing my arms. I was not in the mood for Princess' bratty behavior, especially not when I had been having such a great day beforehand.

"You might want to respect me a little more, Blossom," she warned, a dark tone to her voice. "You know Prom is just around the corner, and you never know what could happen."

I didn't like where this was going. Princess had pulled some dirty tricks before, but those weren't as important considering the fact that we were dealing with criminals committing outlandish crimes anyways on a daily basis. Now, not only were we a little bit...rusty, but she was also planning to mess with one of the biggest nights of our lives.

"What are you talking about, Princess?" I questioned her, knitting my brows.

"I'm just saying that we're going to have an amazing time at Prom this year," she said, a smirk spreading across her face. "Bye Blossom. Bye Bubbles. Have fun shopping."

Princess sauntered away, never looking back to see the looks on me and Bubbles faces. We were simply left to wonder three things:

#1. What knd of trick did Princess have up her sleeve?

#2. What would we do if she really did pull a stunt at Prom? And, most importantly,

#3. How in the world were we going to force Buttercup into this dress...?

(Answer: We're not.)

**A/N: Again, sorry for the wait! I love you all, Happy New Year, and nice comments really do motivate me! Thanks!**


	22. Prom Preperations & Perilous Plots

**A/N:** I feel completely terrible! I haven't updated this story since—can you believe it?—the third of January! I apologize for everyone who has begged me in the reviews to continue! It's been a long school year, so I haven't been able to do much, but we just got out for summer, and so I'm back to write! I promise you, I will finish this story before the end of the month of June (that's the goal at least). I feel awful for making you wait, but FantasticT is back, and better than ever! Plus, while writing this chapter, I realized how much I missed writing these stories. :D

So without further ado...Best Frenemies, Chapter 22! Twists and turns to come!

****One week later****

**BUBBLEs POV**

"_Bl-oooooooooooooooossssooom_! Can you come zip my dress in the back? I can't reach!" I called to her, grabbing for the zipper on the back of my sky blue dress. I looked at myself in my full-length mirror, admiring what I saw.

My hair was up in a classy bun rather than my normal ponytails. I didn't have a single blemish on my face, thanks to the extreme face cleansing I had been doing for the last month and a half, and some silver eye shadow dusted my eyes. My dress, however, was the best part of my ensemble by far. Almost Cinderella-like, the strapless sky blue dress flowed down to the floor, the large skirt swishing back and forwards gracefully as I moved. A white flower rested on the upper-right corner of the dress, adding a little bit of personality to the outfit. I smiled and smoothed out my skirt, still waiting for Blossom.

Where was she, anyways?

"Blossom!" I called one last time, just to be sure she heard me.

"I'll zip up your dress in a minute, Bubbles! Right now, I need help with Buttercup!" I heard my sister call from down the hall. I heard a sudden slam and a "Buttercup!" being yelled right after, followed by noisy running and crashing. I grabbed hold of the top of my dress and scurried out of my room to help my sister.

**BLOSSOMs POV**

I grabbed Buttercup's shoulder and walked her into my closet, which was where I had hidden her dress. I had been getting more and more nervous to show it to her, and had thought about returning it in exchange for a different one several times. Even when Bubbles and I were in the mall picking it out, I had warned her that Buttercup was going to go ballistic when she saw it. We'd ended up buying it anyways though-if Buttercup wore it, she'd look great. If not, then...well, actually, no. I was determined to get her in the dress if it killed me, because tonight would be an extremely important night for all of us, and she needed to look great.

I led her into my walk-in closet and turned a corner, grabbing the dress from between a few of mine. I took a deep breath and noticed that in the background, Bubbles was calling my name repeatedly, but I simply told myself that I would deal with her in a minute. I slipped the dress out of the plastic package, closed my eyes and said a quick prayer before leaning my head out to peer around the corner, not revealing the dress to my green-clad sister quite yet. "Are you ready to see it?"

She crossed her arms and frowned sullenly. "I guess."

Closing my eyes slightly so that it was harder to see Buttercup's reaction, I slowly brought out the dress from around the corner, holding it high for her to see. The dress, which was strapless despite Buttercup's warning, had two layers-one of a lime green fabric underneath one of see through black fabric. After meeting the top half with a large green bow that would wrap around her waist and tie behind her back, the dress came down in a large skirt and stopped right at the floor.

I finally chose to take a peek at Buttercup's reaction and opened my eyes just in time to see her spinning on one heel and out of my room. I quickly and carefully folded her dress over my arm before chasing after her. I caught up with her just in time to slam my door shut and throw myself in front of her to prevent her from leaving my room. "Buttercup! Where are you going?"

"I'm getting the hell out of here, that's what I'm doing," Buttercup tried to reach around me to get to the doorknob, but I threw myself against it.

"Why? Don't you like the dress?" I asked, hoping she might change her mind. Even if she didn't, Bubbles and I would force her into the dress anyways.

"Do I like it? Blossom, I said absolutely, positively, no. Strapless. Dresses!" She scowled at me and pushed me aside. I grabbed her wrist quickly and found myself repeating history.

"Buttercup. Put on the dress. Now."

"No."

"Buttercup."

"No!"

_"Blossooooom_!" I heard Bubbles calling me again. Couldn't she tell that I was dealing with something right now, something extremely vital in guaranteeing the happiness of six super-powered teens? Did she not understand that if we couldn't get Buttercup to get in the dress that it would ruin not only the perfect Prom, but the plan that we'd been working on for the past week and a half?

"I'll zip up your dress in a minute, Bubbles! Right now I need help with Buttercup!" I called to her, letting my guard down for a split second. Buttercup used that second to shove me out of the way, fling open the door, and dart out of the room.

"Buttercup!" I said, getting up from the floor where I had fallen and tossing the dress on the bed so that I could chase my sister down. I scrambled out of my room and into the hallway after Buttercup, slamming my bedroom door behind me as I went. I was surprised that the Professor hadn't heard the commotion and come running up from the lab, although it was probably smart of him to stay downstairs—when Buttercup was angry, she was fierce and couldn't be handled by anyone other than another Powerpuff. Luckily for me Bubbles _had_ heard the commotion and came out of her room just in time to block Buttercup's escape route.

"Get out of the way, Bubbles," Buttercup growled. "I'm not putting on that damn dress and that's final!"

"But why not?" Bubbles asked, her eyes growing sad and confused.

"Because! It's too damn girly! And I told you not to buy me a strapless dress, it was specifically on the 'Don't Even Try It' list!" Buttercup replied sharply, making the frown on Bubbles' grow larger.

Well, I was certainly not going to let Buttercup ruin the best night of our lives, especially when she was supposed to be getting back together with Butch tonight. "Buttercup! Bubbles and I spent so long picking out that dress! We made sure it was green and black, your two favorite colors, and we made sure that it wasn't too revealing! Sure, it's strapless, but it fits all of your other unbelievably high standards and we were not going to allow you to wear, what-a sweatshirt? Absolutely not!

"And anyways," I continued, "this dress would look so amazing on you, and you deserve to look awesome after everybody's treated you so awfully for these last few months! And Mitch even worked up the courage to ask you because he cares about you, Buttercup; you were best friends for Pete's sake! And don't even get me started on how hard the Professor works to earn the money that paid for that dress-"

"In other words," Bubbles said, interrupting me and telling me that she would handle it. "I think what Blossom's trying to say is that we know you've had a-" she paused to choose her words carefully, "-rough last couple of months, and we really just want you to look pretty and have an amazing time tonight. So Buttercup, will you please put on the dress? Just for one night?"

Buttercup glanced at me and Bubbles, the looks on both our faces hopeful. After a moment, she finally sighed and shuffled into my room again. There was a light rustling noise as she scooped the dress up into her arms and emerged.

"I hate all of you so much right now," she muttered, shuffling into her room. Bubbles and I simply squealed and clapped our hands together in excitement. For us, it didn't matter if she whined and complained the whole night—if what we had in store for her went as expected, it would be worth all the trouble in the world.

**BRICKs POV**

"I still don't understand why we can just wear clip-ons," Boomer complained as I finished tying his bowtie. I was already dressed and standing in the living room of Mojo's observatory, helping Boomer to perfect his Prom attire. The night of the plan was finally here, and although our first priority was the help Butch out, we still wanted to look good and impress Blossom and Bubbles.

The plan was almost foolproof. Butch was going to have to sneak himself and his guitar inside, seeing as he didn't buy a ticket, nor did he plan on wearing a tuxedo, so we had arranged with one of the bands that was playing to let him inside to play at exactly 11 PM. From there, it was easy-he'd play his song, make up with BC, and then, more likely than not, be escorted out of the Prom by chaperones. The only problem that I could see in the plan was how to get Mitch out of the picture, but I'm sure that he wouldn't create too much of a problem in the long run.

Once Boomer and I looked presentable and were ready to go, corsages for our dates in hand, I called out to my brother. "Butch, are you ready to go?" I waited a moment for an answer, but one didn't come.

"Be right back." I left Boomer in the living room to himself and rounded the corner to visit Butch in his room. I cracked open the door and peered in, coming face to face with darkness. The room was pitch black with the exception of a strip of moonlight, shining in from the large window. I sighed, knowing that Butch had retreated to the only place where he could seem to think rationally.

I climbed out of the window and onto the ledge, sitting next to him and dangling my feet over the edge. Dressed in dark, ripped jeans and a V-neck T-shirt and accompanied by his long, black hair flying past his face in the wind of the night, my brother looked like the picture of teenage angst. Although I was resisting the urge to point out that we looked like a cliché movie scene, I could tell that Butch needed a bit of a pep talk. He had never been one for feelings or romantic moments, and tonight would take a lot of both of those things, so I knew this would be hard for him.

I looked for a non-awkward way to begin my attempt at an inspirational speech.

"In a way," I said to Butch, "I can see why you think so well up here. You can practically see the entire city." It was true. Even though the city of Townsville was filled with odd villains, constant crime, super powered teenagers, and overly optimistic citizens, it had always been a rather beautiful place to live. In fact, it was particularly nice, especially now that the day was fading into nighttime, and you could see the bright city lights beginning to show. Tonight, however, the town looked fancier than ever with limos driving around and teens dressed up due to the Prom.

He nodded and responded with a simple, "Yeah."

We remained quiet for a moment, but I soon went on, "Listen, dude, I know it's been a rough last couple months and I know that your not a big romantic, but tonight is really important. We've got an amazing, near foolproof plan, and I think we'll be able to pull it off. I get that, even if you don't plan on admitting it, your about to piss yourself from nervousness, but you shouldn't let yourself get too freaked out."

Butch let out a sigh and brought his knees up to his chest, crossing his arms. "That's what I'm worried about."

I raised my eyebrows and turned to him slightly, letting my sarcasm show. "Pissing on yourself?"

He shot me a dirty look while I returned my gaze to the city to conceal my smirk. "No, idiot. I'm...scared. Scared that this isn't gonna work out the way we think it will. You know BC almost as well as me, and you know that she holds a grudge. I just don't know if this is gonna be enough to get her to forgive me."

"It'll work. BC may be hard headed, but she's not heartless. Once she sees that you care enough to get your ass up on stage and perform a song in front of an entire school, she'll come around."

Butch still looked doubtful. "And besides," I threw in, "Even if she turns you down, there are plenty of girls in Townsville who love a boy that can sing."

Although he tried to make sure I couldn't see, I saw Butch crack a smile. Feeling accomplished with my pep talk, I started to move to go back inside. "Come on, Butchie Boy," I said, climbing back through the window. "It's time to get your woman back."

**Third-Person POV**

A brown-haired girl with a yellow dress stood near the trees in a deserted Townsville Park, holding up her skirt to make sure that it didn't snag on to a branch or drag in the dirt. She despised waiting anywhere dirty or in the dark, but knew that this was the only place where she could do what needed to be done.

After a few minutes wait, she heard the sound of an approaching truck. In a moment, the sound stopped, and she now heard the crunching of shoes on leaves and grass.

A tall, freckled boy came into view, although he wasn't facing her. He was dressed in a tuxedo and dress shoes, ready for a black tie event. He called out quietly into the darkness, "Princess?"

Princess Morbucks coughed to get his attention, but when he continued to call out her name, she grew tired of trying to be discreet. "Mitch! Mitch, you idiot, I'm over here!"

Mitch Mitchellson turned around abruptly, finally spotting Princess and shuffling over to where she was standing near the trees. After quickly looking around to make sure that there was no one in the area, Princess motioned for him to come closer.

"You remember the plan, right?" she said, rummaging through her hand bag to find the "stuff".

"Yeah," Mitch said, stuffing his hands in his pockets to protect them from the chilly wind. "Do you have everything?"

"Well, of course I do, stupid, how could I forget!" Princess snapped sharply, finally coming across what she was looking for. Out of her purse came a wad of $100 bills along with a small bottle with a label that read, "Poison".

"And you swear that that little green bitch will be dead by the end of the night?" Princess said before handing him the cash and the bottle. He took both and placed them in his pocket before responding.

"Absolutely," he nodded, shaking hands with Princess.

The heiress smiled devilishly, smoothing out her dress and adjusting the complicated bun on top of her head. "Well then, let's make this a truly unforgettable night."


	23. Waiting For Eleven

**A/N:** Alright, it's time for Chapter 23! We're nearing the end of the story, ladies and gents, but not before some crazy things happen! I think I have (including this chapter) about 4-5 chapters left until the end! Enjoy!

**BUBBLES POV**

"We're heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere!" I squealed as our rental limousine rolled up in front of the hotel where the Townsville High Prom 2010 was being held. Blossom and I joined hands and smiled at each other like we were mad, and the way the others in the car were looking at us, you'd think we had three heads.

Everything looked absolutely perfect. Although the sky was getting a little cloudy, the stars were still bright in the distance, and the city of Townsville was beautiful at night. The streets were busy with happy citizens, going to enjoy a night out, and music played loudly from surrounding buildings. And although some people out on the scene looked fabulous, nobody looked better than the arriving students of Townsville High.

From head to toe, nobody looked anything less than GORGEOUS. From the girls in their colorful, floor-length dresses to the boys in their black and white tuxedos, everyone around us looked like they belonged at a Hollywood red carpet premiere, rather than at the Townsville Prom. I was getting nervous that someone would have the same dress as me as we approached the entrance, but as I scanned the room for look-a-likes, I couldn't find anyone who was a twin.

I looked to the side at my super-powered sisters, smiling at how we all stuck with our usual color schemes, no matter the event. Blossom looked amazing, her hair pulled up into a bun with her classic pink bow making an appearance as her hair tie. Her dress accented her figure perfectly, and the outlines of hot pink flowers were great against the sparkling white fabric of the dress. I'd spent at least an hour more than I'd needed to examining my outfit, making sure I looked absolutely perfect. My Cinderella-like dress looked fantastic, if I did say so myself. Walking quietly next to Blossom was Buttercup and Mitch, both of who looked smashing. While Mitch was dressed in a classic tux-black suit, white shirt, black tie. The only flaw I could see in his ensemble was a big lump, indicating that there was something in his pocket. I simply ignored it, though; probably his house keys or something. Buttercup looked completely out of her element, but also completely beautiful. After plenty of hard work, sweat, and yelling, we had washed, dried, treated, brushed, and curled her hair, leaving her bangs in place so that they swept over her eyes just the way she liked it. Her dress skirt had green fabric under a shimmering, black, see-through layer, while the top was solid black with the same shimmering material. Around her waist was a large bow, which made her already small waist look even tinier. With the six of us walking together, we looked like the picture of beauty.

"I can't believe we're at Prom! This is the most exciting moment of my life! Come on, let's go inside and-" I stopped talking mid-sentence as I was pulled off to the side. I had rounded a corner into an empty hallway, leaving Mitch and Buttercup to continue walking with the rest of the Prom crowd. I found myself standing with Brick, Blossom, and Boomer, while everyone continued towards the dance hall.

"What are we doing?" I asked loudly, only to be hushed by the rest of the group.

"I just wanted to stop and make sure that we all remembered the plan," Brick said, looking around at all of us to confirm that the plan was fresh in our minds.

Blossom nodded. "Right. At around 10:50, we'll look for Buttercup and take her away from Mitch. We'll take her right up next to the stage and dance with her for a song or two, and then at 11, Butch will come out and do his bit. And the rest-"

Brick finished her sentence. "Will be history. Let's do it."

Blossom and I nodded and began to walk away, but Boomer grabbed my arm before we got far. "And, uh, ladies?"

"Yes?" Blossom and I said in unison.

"Save us a dance. This is our night too," Boomer winked at us before we left, off to prepare for the events of the night.

BUTERCUPS POV

"Where'd the others go?" I asked Mitch, looking around me. All I could see was a bunch of squealing teenage girls in brightly colored dresses, accompanied by their less-excited dates. I searched the area for my sisters, wondering how they'd gotten the nerve to beg me to come here in this dress and then ditch me before we even got into the actual Prom. After about a minute of scanning the room, I gave up and returned my attention to Mitch.

I couldn't say that I was unhappy about being here. Mitch looked great, and I had to admit that in the dress, I felt kind of...pretty. This was odd, considering I hadn't felt that way for months. Not only that, but I was getting a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, like something big was going to happen tonight. Although whenever I got that feeling I was normally right, I ignored it and handed the person at the door my ticket, following Mitch into the Prom.

After looking around, I couldn't help but smile a little to myself for the first time in a long time. Everywhere I turned, there were bright decorations, ranging from balloons to streamers to neon lights gleaming on the dance floor. Up on a stage, a loud and energetic band played while loads of students streamed to the dance floor, excited to get the night started. Already, people were assuming the position of Prom—nerds gathered around the snack table, single girls and guys seating themselves with others of their kinds, and couples either moving out to dance or mingling with their friends. I turned to Mitch, who seemed to be on pins and needles.

"Are you feeling okay?" I asked him, giving him a funny look.

He took a moment to answer and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, I'm fine...do you want to get some punch?" He began to practically drag me towards the punch bowl, without even waiting for an answer from me.

"Here, I'll pour us some," he said quickly, turning his back to me so that he blocked the view of the punch bowl. I raised an eyebrow at him when he wasn't looking. He was acting really weird for some reason. He whipped around quickly with a cup for me and for him, shoving my punch towards me and downing his so fast that I was surprised he didn't choke on it.

"You've got to try this, it's great," he sputtered, his hands shaking.

"Thats alright, I'm not really thirsty..." I said, confused. I set my cup down on a nearby table, guessing that he might just be nervous about dancing. Maybe I should try and...break the ice? I wasn't sure anymore about what to do around people anymore, I'd only recently begun to come back out of my shell.

Well, I guess no better place to start than Prom. "Mitch, do you want to dance?"

He took a quick glance at my cup of punch on the table before answering me. "Sure."

We winded through the crowd, out on to the dance floor, amongst people that I hadn't conversed with in months. I found myself looking around and almost missing everyone, and soon even found myself having a good time. I was getting plenty of compliments on my outfit and getting invited to dance with tons of friends that I couldn't believe even remembered my name, let alone wanted to hang out. And although I was still feeling a bit shy, I couldn't help but to enjoy myself, even if only a little bit.

**BUTCHS POV**

Armed with only ripped jeans and my acoustic guitar, I went around the side of the hotel, and then to the back, looking for a way to get in. Finally, I spotted an entrance marked 'Staff Only', which to me read, 'BUTCH! HEY BUTCH! ENTER HERE!'. I made my way towards the door, seeing that I needed a key to get in.

I took a moment to think, WWBD-What Would Brick Do? But when I really thought about it, Brick would probably try to create a plan, then get frustrated and simply break down the door. So, skipping the thinking and frustration steps, I created a hole in the door with my fist, unlocking it from the inside. Feeling accomplished, I made my way inside.

I walked quickly but cautiously, so that I could make it to the dance hall in time. The eleven o' clock hour was approaching quickly, and although I wasn't one for perfection, I needed everything to go perfectly tonight. I knew that in there, Buttercup was dancing with Mitch, which wasn't okay with me. She was meant to be with me right now, and all that stood between us was a few guitar chords and my voice in the microphone.

At about 10:48 I found myself being welcomed into a backstage area by one of the members of the band that was raking a break, letting the DJ take over. They wished me luck, being let in on why I was there, and told me that they hoped everything would work out for the best. I smiled and nodded like it was no big deal, but on the inside I felt like throwing up.

Butch Jojo, the toughest, wildest, funniest Rowdyruff serenading a girl at Prom? There was something wrong with the picture. I _never_ felt nervous about anything, or at least I never admitted to myself that I was. But as the time grew closer for me to perform, I found myself at a loss for nerves. My legs were shaking, my stomach was doing backflips, and I couldn't stop pacing around. I just couldn't shake the feeling of pure fear that was taking over me.

_What if this doesn't work?_ I suddenly thought to myself, freezing on the spot. Just because my brothers said it was foolproof, didn't mean that it would work. Like me, Buttercup wasn't much of a romantic, so what if she found the serenade stupid? Or cheesy? Or plain embarrassing? If that happened, she'd probably end up with Mitch, which would in turn, probably kill me. I tried to snap out of it and focus, hoping for the best and trying to remember how to breathe as Peter, one of the guys from the band, signaled that I had about five minutes to showtime.

I picked up my guitar_. Well, even if it doesn't work_, I thought to myself, _at least she'll know I care enough to try. _

Creeping out to the side of the stage, just behind the curtain where the partygoers couldn't see me, I peered out into the crowd. I quickly spotted Buttercup towards the center of the dance floor, dancing with her sisters just as planned. Of course, she looked stunning, which didn't at all improve my nerves. I whipped my head back behind the curtain before anyone saw me and took one more breather, glancing at the clock routinely. About 3 minutes left.

I sighed and sat towards the side of the stage, waiting for 11 o' clock to strike.

**BUTTERCUPS POV**

I was having a great time dancing with my sisters, both of whom looked gorgeous. I was ecstatic when they'd stolen me away from Mitch; he'd been continuously asking if I wanted any punch as if he were addicted to it, and it was getting a little weird. In fact, he had been acting rather jittery all night, and it was starting to make me feel awkward and annoyed.

And although I was avoiding Mitch for his odd behavior, my sisters were acting a bit out of the ordinary as well. Every time I'd look over at them, they'd have these enormous, almost creepy looks on their faces, like they knew a big secret that I didn't. I had asked them what was up a few times already, and they'd replied nothing every time. I figured that it was just the excitement of being at Prom after waiting for so long.

The song we were dancing to ended and Blossom quickly glanced to the clock, and then back at me and Bubbles. "Girls, let's move towards the stage-I heard they have an amazing band playing up next."

She grabbed me and Bubbles' arms and brought us up to the stage, front and center. The DJs voice boomed over the loudspeakers, bringing everyone to attention.

"Next up, ladies and gentlemen, things are about to slow down a bit. We're going to hear a serenade to one of our very own Powerpuff Girls, Ms. Buttercup Utonium."

I felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach and sent me into a trance as I heard my name aloud and the lights began to dim. Onstage, there was a single spotlight, and under that spotlight was a boy sitting on a tall wooden stool. His long, black, shaggy hair fell in his eyes in a familiar way, and his clothes included ripped skinny jeans and a forest green shirt.

Butch adjusted his guitar and leaned into the mic, letting the words of our song flow from the stage and into the crowd.


	24. Butch's Big Break

**BUTTERCUPS POV**

The sound of Butch's guitar and voice was simply unbelievable together, and I could tell that the look on my face was one of both shock and disbelief. I didn't think I would ever end up in a moment like this. Perhaps someone had spiked the punch, and I'd passed out and was dreaming. But, as much as I wished it was true, the sound of Chase Coy's lyrics escaping Butch's lips told me that I was wrong, and that this was reality. Starting off with a quiet strum on his guitar, Butch sang down to the crowd (but more directly, to me):

_Every time I see your smile _

_It makes my heart beat fast_

_And though it's much too soon to tell_

_I'm hoping this will last_

_Cuz I just always wanna have you right here by my side_

_The future's near but never certain_

_At least stay here for just tonight_

_I musta done something right _

_To deserve you in my life_

_I musta done something right _

_Along the way_

_I just can't get you off my mind_

_And why would I even try? _

_Cuz even when I close my eyes_

_I dream about you all the time_

_I just always wanna have you right here by my side. _

_The future's near but never certain _

_So please stay here for just tonight. _

_I musta done something right _

_To deserve you in my life_

_I musta done something right _

_Along the way_

_And even if the moon fell down tonight_

_There'd be nothing to worry about at all Because you make the whole world shine_

_As long as you're here everything will be alright_

_I musta done something right _

_To deserve you in my life_

_I musta done something right _

_Along the way_

As finished the song, the entire room was dead silent for a moment before bursting into insane applause. Some of the girls around me had even begun to cry, telling me that I must feel like the luckiest girl alive. Butch tossed his guitar off to someone on the side of the stage and returned to the mic before the DJ could get the chance to play the next song.

"BC," he stammered, and I started to back away from the stage. I hated having all the attention on me as everyone waited for my reaction. I should have known what my sisters were up to, the way they were smiling. And $20 said that Brick and Boomer were in on it too.

"I know you're here with another guy tonight, but I had to try. I miss you more than I can explain, and what happened with us wouldn't have happened if you knew the truth about that day. I understand if you don't forgive me...but I love you, and I just had to try. Have a great night everybody."

Butch wandered off the stage, applause behind him as he parted, leaving me to wonder what he'd meant by "if you knew the truth". I was making me way towards the door to see if I could find Butch and talk to him when Mitch popped in front of my, armed with two cups full of punch.

"Do you want some-"

"Okay! Okay! I'll drink the damn punch if you just _stop asking_!" I growled. Couldn't he tell that I was busy? He was probably just trying to stop me from going off with an ex and leaving him.

I put the cup to my lips and was about to take a sip when I noticed a small, odd little bottle sticking out of Mitch's pocket. I brought the cup away from my mouth abruptly, intrigued by the strange thing.

"Something wrong?" Match said, turning the question on me for the first time that night.

"What's this in your pocket?" I asked, quickly grabbing it out of his pocket before he could stop me. Inside was a sort of white powder, and at first I thought it may have been cocaine and I would have to have Mitch arrested. When I turned the bottle over in my hands and read the label "Poison" on the front, though, I almost wished it had been illegal drugs.

I stood in shock for the second time that evening. *Mitch tried to poison me...? I thought. My confusion slowly morphed into anger, but when I looked up, Mitch was long gone and my sisters were standing in his place, sharing the same look of disbelief.

Blossom was just opening her mouth to speak, but as she did, an explosion tore pieces from the stage and ripped them across the room. "Buttercup Utonium!" a voice cried from behind the remains. Princess Morbucks in a new and improved gold super suit along with about 15 other men emerged from the smoke.

She shot lasers into the crowd, making everyone scream and jump. She singled me out and sent me the coldest glare I'd ever seen. "Buttercup Utonium," she repeated, "this is the last straw! Prepare to meet your maker!"


	25. Midnight at the Prom of Good and Evil

**A/N:** Alright everybody! Things are about to get good! For all of you big Buttercup fans, you're about to get a good, old fashioned fight scene! And for all of you sappy, love-lovers—your time will be coming up soon. The end of the story is getting closer and closer, ladies and gents!

As I was writing up these last couple chapters, I found myself thinking about what I wanted to do next. So, in your opinion, what type of story should I write? A sequel to this story? An entirely different tale? Leave in the comments what you think I should write next!

And by the way, to **SnoopyGirl213**—I'm sorry for leaving you with such a terribly lovely cliffhanger! Glad I left you in suspense, but don't come after me!:)

On with the chapter!

**Disclaimer:** If you weren't aware of it by now, I don't own the Powerpuff Girls or any of their characters! Pay your respects to Mr. Craig McCracken!

**BUTTERCUPS POV**

I had to admit, it surprised me when Princess broke into the room with her small army. Then again, I guess this was a night just full of surprises for me. I hadn't expected it at all when Butch had come out onto the stage and serenaded me. I tried in the beginning to hold my grudge against him, but as the song went on I slowly softened. I couldn't believe that he'd cared enough to come out in front of so many people and do something like that. Now the only thing I wanted to do was talk to him, figure out what he meant, and try and mend what was left between us.

But I didn't have time for that now. My superhero instincts kicked in and I leaped into a fighting stance as soon as I heard Princess called me out. I silently hoped that I wasn't too much out of practice—it had been a couple years since I last did any serious crime fighting, and who knew how long Princess had to train for this moment. Clearly she'd done plenty of previous planning; her super suit was improved and polish, her henchmen looked trained and ready to kill—a few of them I could see were armed with guns. I swallowed and turned to face Princess.

"What do you want Princess? I thought you gave up trying to win a long time ago," I questioned her, slowly approaching the stage at the same time Princess came off the stage to meet me. The crowd of students split as we came to meet each other in the middle of the dance hall. Everyone seemed to form a circle around us, watching with anticipation.

"I shouldn't even need to tell you what I want, Buttercup. I've tried everything," she growled, "I caused chaos in Townsville! I tricked you into thinking Butch cheated on you! I even tried to poison you tonight. That's right. I bribed Mitch into asking you to Prom, just so he could sneak poison into your drink! All I wanted was revenge on you, to make you feel the kind of pain I felt!"

I gave her an odd look. What the hell was she rambling on about? "Princess, what are you talking about? I've never done anything to—"

Princess crossed her arms and glared at me. "Think about it. What did you have that I didn't? That I couldn't have?"

I thought about it, remembering how interested Princess had been in Butch only a few months before he and I had started dating. They had dated for a while, and Princess had been really into him. But, being Butch, he didn't feel the same for her—he said she was too clingy, calling every hour on the hour and wanting to hang out every day. So he had broken up with her, despite her constant efforts to win him back. She shut up after awhile, but I could tell her hate had grown for me; Butch and I were best friends after all, so I was always spending time with him—time that she thought should belong to her. Then, when she found out about our relationship, the previous hate that she had built up for me throughout the years multiplied by five. I couldn't pass her in the hallway without an insult or getting bumped into, but I ignored it—I had what she wanted, so it really didn't matter to me.

It all made sense now though. With me out of the picture, Princess would have Butch all to herself. First she broke Butch and I up. Then, she bribed Mitch to poison me so that it appeared like I'd randomly passed away. Mitch would keep quiet about the whole thing if he had his money. And Butch would have to move on eventually, and would never find out that Princess had to do with any of it. And although Butch might not take her back, Princess had one and only one thought in mind: That if she couldn't have Butch, no one could.

"Princess, are you really trying to kill me over a boy?" I asked in disbelief. I clenched my fist, preparing myself to fight.

"And one other thing."

I waited for her to reveal her hidden motive, when it popped into my mind. Memories from the past flooded my head, and I couldn't help but to roll my eyes as I realized just what Princess' problem was.

"Oh, Princess. This again? You have _got_ to be kidding me," I complained, rolling my eyes and groaning. "Can't you let it go already?"

"It isn't funny!" Princess snarled, frowning and stomping her feet like a five year old. "All I wanted was to be a Powerpuff Girl! That was all I've ever wanted! But noooo! You denied me every single time! You didn't even give me a chance! And so this is what you get! I figured that if I could get rid of the toughest Powerpuff first, the other two wimps wouldn't be that hard to take care of! So I made this whole plan! In the end, I would get the guy of my dreams, get rid of you three idiots, and become the toughest, richest, and prettiest Powerpuff Girl of all time! And there'd be no one to stop me!"

"Oh, please," I scoffed. "You're all bark and no bite, Princess, just like always. So are we just gonna stand around and talk, or are you gonna actually do something?"

"Well, we are at Prom_. So let's dance_." Princess shot towards me, grabbing onto my shoulder and shoving me back with surprising force. The crowd screamed and parted as I flew backwards in a streak of green, flying into the snack table and sending food soaring everywhere. I sat up quickly, cupcake frosting covering my arms, just in time to see Princess zipping towards me.

I timed things right, kicking out my legs and flipping her into the wall. Her body created an outline in hotel, and I began punching her in the stomach before she could peel herself off. For a moment, I thought to myself how lucky I was that I wasn't too rusty. But in the moment, Princess managed to grab my fist, flinging me across the room.

Before I could ram into the stage, I landed on my feet and skidded to a stop. I charged back towards Princess, ready to take her on again, when I found myself surrounded by Princess' minions. I took a quick look around, sizing each one up before starting to fight. I saw only three with guns and the rest were unarmed except for their fists.

I was beginning to make my move when, in two flashes of pink and blue, I was joined by my sisters. It would be the first time we would fight as a team in a long time, but we'd been defending Townsville for so many years now, I doubted it would take us long to readjust. Blossom assumed her position in the center, with Bubbles and I on either side of her.

"Let's go, girls!" she cried, and with that, we were off.

Princess saw us begin to move, and called out, "Don't just stand there! Get them, get them, GET THEM!". Using her super suit, she rose up into the air to get a better look at the action.

Fifteen men, three of us, so we'd each take four unarmed men plus one with a gun. The gunmen seemed to be staying out of combat for the time being, but I made sure I kept my eye on them just in case. Letting your guard down could be a fatal mistake during battle, and this was a fight we couldn't afford to lose.

Blossom took out all of her threats, but with less ease than expected. The men were all clearly extremely well-trained and muscular, and they showed it in battle. However, what they had in muscle, they lacked in brains. Blossom easily took out the four unarmed men as one charged quickly towards her. He lashed out to give her a blow to the stomach, but she caught his fist just before it could make contact. She swung him around, using his body to knock out every other minion that surrounded her and then knocking him out by throwing him into the stage. As for the man with the gun, he shot at her (earning several horrified screams from the students, whom the chaperones were attempting to evacuate) but missed each time. He nearly got her once, but she grabbed a folding chair out from under a table, deflecting the bullet and sending it back to it's source. It got the man in the leg, leaving him without the ability to stand. Blossom quickly confiscated his gun, swooping over to Bubbles' fight just in time to save her from a fatal blow.

Bubbles had always been an amazing fighter when she was mad, and was showcasing that ability right now. She was swinging, punching, and kicking with fury, even angry enough to bring one of the men to tears by kicking him right where the sun doesn't shine. Just when she was in hand to hand combat with the final of her unarmed opponents, the armed man came behind her to shoot her in the back of the head, a hit even a super powered teen couldn't survive. Fortunately, Blossom saved her, swinging around a folding chair and knocking him out before any harm could come to her.

For me, the battle was easy. I knocked out each of the unarmed men with a single punch to the head, leaving them in a heap on the ground at my feet. In under thirty seconds, all I had left was the man with the gun, who I had to wrestle with for a moment, sending shots into the floors and ceiling. I could hear Blossom yelling at me to watch out for the other students so that none of them would be injured, but I could also hear Princess commanding her minion to shoot me, shoot me, shoot me!

After a minute, I finally broke the man's gun in two and smashed one of the halves I've his head, knocking him senseless. I turned to face Princess, proud of what me and my sisters had accomplished.

"Looks like it's you and me, Princess," I said, turning to look into the air where she just, but seeing that she was gone. Confused, I looked back and forward, only to hear a cry of, "Look out, Buttercup!" as I was grabbed by the neck, a cold piece of metal pressed against my head, a gasp echoing throughout the student body.

Princess flew me to the center of the room, a gold color streak following her. The crowd "Nobody move," she warned. "If any of you Powerpuffs take two steps, I'll shoot Buttercup. And if you fight back, Buttercup, I'll shoot you. I want you three Powerpuffs to follow me to my house, and when we get there, you three will transfer your powers to me. And if that doesn't happen, then Buttercup is a goner; got it?"

I sighed, closing my eyes in defeat. As much as I wanted to fight back, I knew that with that super suit, Princess could move just about as fast as we could. But I had let my gaze wander from Princess, and Id given her the time to sneak behind me and put a gun to my head. Super powers protected you a heck of a lot more than being normal, but no one could survive being shot through the brain. There was, at this point, nothing left we could do. For the first time, the day _couldn't _be saved by the Powerpuff Girls.

It killed me inside. I hated losing. I hated not being able to feel like a hero, knowing that you'd saved the day, and done the best thing you could for your city, and friends, and family. I wanted to feel proud of myself. That's why I would always be sure to pack the hardest punch and make the final blow. That's why I was always the least likely to give up anything.

But at that moment in time, I'd completely given up. I'd lost Butch, the best thing that ever happened to me. I lost all my friends, moping around and dragging my feet, refusing to speak to anyone after my heart was broken. I'd lost my sisters now-I could see Bubbles crying, and even Blossom had her normally high head hung, her eyes cast towards the ground. And most importantly, I'd lost respect for myself. I'd let Princess damned Morbucks ruin my entire life and bring me, Buttercup Utonium, to pieces. What happened to being the toughest fighter? The strongest Puff? It took everything in me not to let a tear slip down my cheek at the thought.

**However, life seems to work in a way that when you're fighting for the side of Good, things always happen in your favor. And when you feel like giving up, or when there seems like there's no hope for you, something happens that completely turns things back around. Because although Murphy's Law applied itself to the side of Good more than often, the Fairytale Principle-that good people will always have a happy ending-also makes a regular appearance.**

That being true, just as Princess was barking her commands and I had given up all hope, I noticed a light buzzing sound in the background, a sound that could only be identified by the buzzing of laser vision. I glanced at my sisters; they noticed it too. I followed the source of the sound, peering up at the ceiling. Directly above Princess and I was a giant glass chandelier, elegant and decorated with shimmering diamonds. And directly above that chandelier was a boy with shaggy black hair and unmistakable, forest-green eyes.

Butch.

He was burning away the part of the chandelier that connected it to the ceiling. He noticed my looking at him and signaled me to be sure to clear out of the way before it hit. I nodded slightly, and smiled at Princess.

"Hey, Princess," I said, being sure not to move a muscle.

"What do you want?" She snapped back at me.

"I just wanted to warn you. Whatever you do, don't look up."

"What are you talking abo-" she started, but gasped before finishing the sentence. Butch cut the line, sending the world into slow motion again. Princess let go of me in surprise, giving me enough time to shoot away from what was about to happen. The Prom crowd scrambled back and screamed at the top of their lungs, boys and girls and chaperones and Powerpuffs and Rowdyruffs all surprised. The giant chandelier collapsed on Princess, bringing her down to the floor with it as it smashed into the ground, her body trapped underneath.

A spray of blood burst out from Princess' body, nearly covering the entire center of the dance hall with the crimson liquid. I heard the three-tone _beep beep beep_ as several people called 911 on their cell phones. My sisters and I approached the girl under the chandelier cautiously, waiting to see if her eyes would suddenly fly open, filled with fury.

They never did.


	26. Cliché Moments To Fall In Love With

**A/N: **I bet you didn't see that one coming did ya? Or if you did, I bet you thought she was gonna get shot by one of her own men? Well, that was what was going to happen originally, but I couldn't figure out the best way to make that happen and make it happen in an interesting way. Plus, everyone loves a good moment of "death-by-chandelier"!

Second to last chapter, ladies and gentlemen! And (although **don't **take my word on it) I'll probably have the Epilogue up in just a few short hours, so stay tuned!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Powerpuff Girls. I'm sorry.

**BUTTERCUPS POV**

All I could hear was the sound of concerned students and chaperones, and the wailing of police and ambulance sirens. I sat on the steps of the hotel entrance, watching the scene around me in despair. Hard midnight rain had started to come down **(A/N: Much to the author's cliché amusement,) **and everyone seemed terrified out of their minds. It had all happened so fast, and I never could have imagined in all my seventeen years that one of my fights would end in a death.

_Princess Morbucks is dead. _It still seemed so unreal, so unbelievable. Just the thought made me shudder. I bunched my dress up and brought my knees to my chest, burying my head in the fabric. I breathed in and out, trying my hardest not to cry.

Even though Princess was one of our enemies, I never would have wanted her to die. I'd made a promise to myself after we'd first killed the first version of the Rowdyruff Boys by kissing them. I promised that I would never kill another human, animal, or thing (unless it was bugs, which my sisters would always freak out about). And although I didn't kill Princess, I couldn't help but to feel responsible for her death.

I was sure that Butch didn't want to kill her, either. Even he looked shocked as the paramedics came in and untangled her body from the large chandelier. He'd disappeared soon after he'd done the deed, and I hadn't seen him or gotten to talk to him since. That was about an hour ago—it was midnight now, but the police wanted everyone to stick around, just in case they needed to be questioned. Of course, the Powerpuff Girls did. We were always the first to be asked questions whenever anything went wrong.

I was still sitting on the steps, my hair sticking to my face from the rain, when I heard someone whispering to me. I looked up, only to see Butch leaning his head over the roof of the building, motioning me to come up. Seeing him communicating with me after almost a year of not talking made my stomach do flips, but I forced myself to nod back at him. I looked around to make sure that no one was watching me, and then ran to a side alley, where I quickly zipped up the side of the building and onto the roof, where Butch was waiting for me. He sat near the edge of the building, sitting 'criss-cross apple sauce' style, the way we did in Kindergarten. I joined him, almost nervous.

"Hi," I began awkwardly.

"Hey," he replied, the rain causing his hair to cover up his eyes and make him look even darker than usual.

"So," I continued, after a moment of silence. "What did you mean when you said that I didn't really know what happened that day when...you know."

"I mean, Princess pretty much told you when she was doing her little monologue. That day at the movie theatre, BC, I was out with the guys. We thought that we had bought tickets to a horror movie, but it turned out to be a chick-flick, and Brick told us that we had to stay because he didn't want to waste our money. I guess Princess saw us walk in, because she followed us and sat next to me while Boomer and I were fighting over the popcorn bowl. I sat back up, and the next thing I knew, she had grabbed me and...You know. Kissed me. I swear, I didn't kiss her back, but she took me by surprise."

"The next thing I knew, I looked up and saw you standing up and glaring at me. And the next thing I knew after that, I was lying unconscious in the arcade," he remembered, smiling. The smile slowly faded back into a serious look as he took my hand in his. As we held hands, I could tell that we were still meant for each other—my hands fit perfectly with his. I was amazed at what he was saying to me, miserable that I had let Princess ruin what we had together. I was glad, though, that it was raining so hard—I had tears coming quickly down my cheeks, but you couldn't tell when they intermingled with the raindrops also sliding down my face.

"Listen, Buttercup, I would never, never, do anything like that to you. And the only reason I didn't come after you that day was because I didn't feel like getting my ass beat twice." He smiled at me, squeezing my hand. "I love you, and I hated that we had to go through all this before we could actually talk things out. I want you so badly to forgive me, but if you don't—"

And I could tell in the pit of my stomach that another cliché moment was about to slip itself into my life, another fairytale come to be real, another dream come true. Because before Butch could let any more words out, I leaned over and shared a kiss in the rain with him like couples do in all the cheesy, romantic movies that my sisters love to watch. I couldn't say that it felt cheesy and cliché at the moment though—I had to say that I was enjoying it.

**I, Buttercup Utonium, was a superhero. I could've done anything or flown myself anywhere that night. I could have visited the beaches of Hawaii, with sand between my toes and the ocean breeze in my face. I could have flown away to the mountains and enjoyed the view of rolling land against a starry night sky. I could have gone to the moon and back, watching the Earth spin around the Sun while the lives of everyone on the ground went on normally.**

**But even though I could go all those places or do all those things, I don't think that at that moment, kissing and hugging Butch on the roof in the rain, I would have chosen to be anywhere else. **


	27. Epilogue

**A/N:** Can you believe it, you guys! It's the final chapter! I've had such an amazing time writing this story, and I'm really disappointed that it's coming to an end!

I'd like to say thanks to all of the reviewers that have helped me improve my writing or given me motive to **update, update, update! **Without you, I probably wouldn't have had the strength to drag myself through all those times when I had to write a difficult part of the story (I'm _terrible_ at writing fluff) or write in a difficult Point Of View (I'll admit I'm not too great at writing in Boomers or Bricks!). You guys have been super, and I hope you stick around for more of my stories and subscribe to me!

Now, because I hate blabbering on and on in my Author's Notes, I give you, without any ado, the **final chapter**! **Read and review, everybody, and don't forget to suggest what you want to see from me next!**

**Bye!**

**BUTTERCUPS POV**

"And stay out!" The beefy security guards called to us as they—literally—tossed Butch and I out of the front door of the funeral. I landed on my backside, while my counterpart ate the concrete, landing right on his face.

Just a few minutes ago, Butch and I, along with several other citizens of Townsville, were attending the funeral of Princess Morbucks. There were only a few people crying—Princess' two friends and her mother. The sun was beginning to set on Townsville, which created a beautiful scene inside the church. Butch had kept quiet until we were asked to say a couple words, which was when I'd started praying that he'd keep his mouth shut for once. Of course, that was when he'd stood up, and in front of everyone, said: "I think we'll all miss Princess. I hope she has a safe and happy trip, straight to hell."

By that point, Princess' mother had passed out, Butch and I had begun to bicker, and the security guards were swarming towards us. Not thirty seconds later, we were heaved out of the doors, knowing that we would get a good scolding from our better-behaved siblings later on.

"Screw them," Butch muttered into the ground. He rolled over onto his back and sat himself up on his elbows. "They can't even pretend that they don't think Princess is a-"

"-was. She's dead now," I corrected him, lifting myself off the ground and kicking him in the side. "Idiot."

"What the hell was that for?" he asked, gripping his ribs. I seemed to be the only one in the whole city of Townsville that could actually hurt him.

"Butch. I love you kid, but you're also a _huge _dumb-ass."

"I'm not just _a _dumb-ass. I'm _the _dumb-ass, thank you very much."

We'd made our way over to the cold steps in front of the church. Simultaneously, we put our legs out so that they were stretched down the steps and put our elbows up on the top step. We sat for a few minutes in silence looking out at the bright lights of Townsville, and not far west of that, Citysville.

After Butch and I had made up, we'd ditched the crime scene to go and grab something to eat. It was the happiest I'd been in my whole life to be back with him, and we definetily needed some time to catch up, although there wasn't much to catch up on—we'd pretty much both done nothing but stay at home since that day at the movies.

The next day, my sisters filled me in on everything—how they'd already gotten back together with Brick and Boomer, and how together, they'd all planned for Butch to sing that night. I couldn't thank them enough, but they said that treating them to some ice cream. Butch, on the other hand, thanked his brothers by sleeping in the entire next day, leaving them with nothing but peace and quiet, just like they wanted.

I hadn't seen Mitch since I'd found the bottle of poison in his pocket. I'd heard that he'd just darted through the crowd, warned Princess that I'd found out so that she could bring in backup, and then run away without telling anybody where he was going. He'd just simply hopped in his car and drove off, without even collecting his bribe from Princess. In my opinion though, it was a smart idea to get out of town; if he hadn't, Butch and I would have beat him to the ground anyways. If I never saw him again, I wouldn't care. But if I did, I'd be sure to give him a good punch in the mouth.

Glancing at Butch, who was lying quietly next to me, I thought about what had happened over the past year or so as we sat quietly together. Let's see: I turned sixteen...got together with my best friend...broke up...went into a depression...got serenaded at Prom...witnessed a death...the list went on and on. And imagine, I had no clue what was coming my way when we were still fighting the guys as five-year-old superheroes.

Life was so funny that way. A year ago, when I woke up on my birthday, I had no idea that that was the day that would decide the next 365 in my life. I had no idea of what was in store for me a couple of months later. Fate even worked from the time I was five, the first time I saw Butch, when he and his brothers were still committing crimes. I had no clue that in just a few years he and I would become friends, and then best friends, and then...soul mates. That sort of thing always managed to amaze me.

I let out another long sigh, unable to believe how far we'd come from being two tough, green-eyed, five-year-old kids costing the city millions of dollars in damage due to our reckless fighting. Now we were two tough, seventeen-year-old kids trying to get through the rest of our time in high school without fighting or too much drama-neither of which we'd managed to avoid.

I was just starting to feel peaceful when Butch let out a sudden groan. "I'm bored," he whined.

"You're the one who got us kicked out," I rolled my eyes at him.

"Well, sitting out here waiting to rot is better than trying to think of nice lies to say about that bitch," he said flatly, closing his eyes and leaning his head back to face the sky.

I did the same and tried to think of a good comeback. Several times I opened and closed my mouth until I simply gave up. "Yeah," I agreed, being forced to admit that Princess never did anything good for anybody.

We both sat still, eyes closed, faces towards the sky. I breathed in the cool night air, hoping to feel a moment of pure bliss. However, I still felt like something was missing...

Butch's eyes shot open at the same time as mine. He smiled a familiar mischievous grin at me and I mirrored the same look.

"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" he asked me, sitting up.

"Race to the edge of Townsville and back?"

"You're on."

**3, fANtAStiCT**


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